Passing the Patternity Test

>> Who (in the UK or illegally accessing the BBC from abroad…) watched the mesmerising BBC4 documentary about the photographer Vivian Maier, crudely dubbed "Mary Poppins with a camera" and then went on a rampant search only to discover that the internetz had worked its viral magic already and in fact, I had already seen Maier's work numerous times without knowing the source of the imagery.  Credit where credit is due as Maier's thousands and thousands of photographs taken during the 1950s-70, mostly on black and white film on her discreet Rolleiflex camera, demonstrate the skill of accute and beguiling observation, without displaying any traits of searching for attention (Maier's work only came to light after her death and is enjoying posthumous fame).  

On that black and white observational tangent, I'm tying in the latest collaboration of Patternity, who have been so adept at observing beauty in the mundane.  They've paired up with cashmere label Chinti & Parker for a 28-piece capsule collection that launches next Monday 1st July on MatchesFashion.com, Net-a-Porter and their own website.  Tap in a few words such as "grid", "black" or "triangle" into the exhaustive archive of rich imagery, which Anna Murray and Grace Winteringham of Patternity have accumulated over the last few years, and it's clear where their inspiration has come from for these graphic check, striped, polka and triangle knits.  The key to their enduring loveliness is the simplicity and the combination with Chinti & Parker's super soft shapes, with one of the more complex patterns being dots and checks combined together into a segmented V-fronted sweater.  When the world in black and white can be conveyed in the richly textured and magnficently storied way that Maier has done through her photographs, it's no wonder you want to turn to Patternity's collaborative knits, which manage to say a lot by doing very little.  

Architecture photograph backgrounds from Rob Cartwright Photography and Albireo2006 Flickr

Video directed by Zoe Hitchen. Lookbook and video art directed and produced by Patternity Studio.