For Vinyle zine's first issue, we found artists in every art discipline to feature them for coverage. We asked Arianna Valbrun 'how does your artwork express your soul?' Read below to see how the fashion designer puts her all into her craft.
I came up with my brand during the summer of 2019, but I’ve been crocheting for about seven years now. As a person who found herself always being heavily critical of my work and not confident in my artistry, it was hard to put myself out there. Furthermore, I didn’t want my hobby to become a job and I felt pressure for my work to be just as perfect and stylized as all the other crochet artists I had looked up. Creatively, social distancing was the best thing that could've happened to me. This alone time and space to create without the opinions of others has done wonders for my process. During this time I was able to make a cohesive capsule collection (something that I’ve never been able to do because I either had school, work, or prepaid commissions that take priority). I’ve really enjoyed just being able to create and get back to the HOBBY side of crocheting, the reason why I started in the first place.
My brand expresses my soul because I’m a fun loving, multifaceted girl who cares about sustainability and expressing my sexuality through my style. I came up with “Knotty by Ari” because crocheting at it’s most basic form is just making knots, and everything is handmade by me, Ari. Also the play on the word “Naughty” comes from the fact that most of pieces are sexy and heavily focused on merging soft silhouettes, sporty looks and high fashion with a non-widely used medium— crochet. I want people of feel empowered and sexy when they wear my clothes especially considering that crocheting is such an ancient art form that is often deemed as an elderly hobby or house chore. I want to challenge that by making y2k and 90s reminiscent clothes, my favorite subculture and style inspiration. I make all of my own patterns and free hand all of my work to get my crochet to look and fall on the body exactly how I want it to. The process of crochet is meticulous, it requires effort, persistence, stamina and attention to detail. I feel like that work comes through in my pieces, knowing every stitch was woven together by me. Turning a string of yarn into a 3D wearable plane is not light work, but I take pride in making it look effortless.
For more looks and love from Arianna, check out her Instagram: @ariannavalbrun
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