–Zara Korutz
I think too many designers and artists focus on the pure vision, no matter the environmental costs, rather than challenging themselves to innovate from existing materials.
photo ©Annie Tzvetanova
Persephone Bennett is a New York City–based knitwear designer who exudes both intellectual and emotional intelligence. Her zero-waste design practice is, as she describes it, “purpose-driven,” guided by a self-directed, meditative process that she refers to as “confessional” in nature.
On a late summer afternoon, I spoke with Persephone over Zoom from her Brooklyn apartment. Behind her were bundles of yarn arranged on wall shelves, creating an inviting, textured backdrop. As we chatted, her hands were diligently working on an intricate crochet garment — giving cozy knitting vibes.
Zara Korutz/NKM: I’m very excited to talk to you!
Persephone Bennett: Oh, likewise!
Where are you right now?
I’m in my apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I’m working on this like behemoth of a crochet project.
It’s beautiful.
It’s going to be a dress. It’s going to be like really, really intricately crocheted lace the whole way through.
I’m really intrigued by the aesthetic of your garments. They are beautifully constructed. They are elegant, sophisticated, and delicate. It’s almost as though you’re making chaos into beauty.
Oh, thank you.
photo ©Alexx Duvall
I want to know more about your process.
A lot of my work is very intuitive. I don’t really sketch before I make anything. I work primarily with secondhand materials. I’m part of a lot of knitting groups, and I am connected to a lot of like knitting ministries. So, people give me their secondhand yarns all the time, like pretty much everything behind me. I have a lot of friends in their seventies and sixties, and they are like, “I’ve held this yarn for like 40 years and I never used it, so here you go”. So, I try to find ways to use up what already exists.
What inspires your aesthetic?
After graduating college, I had this real shift in my aesthetic. I was spending time home alone with my family because my dad was terminally ill, so I was just sitting there. I didn’t really have a job. I was just knitting all the time. And I came up with this very intuitive way of making. So, I’ve been expanding on that ever since. Doing what feels right in the moment and then stopping when it doesn’t, and then finding ways to work around that and drape into a form that is cohesive and does what I want it to do.
I’m not a knitter but working with your hands appears to be a release of energy.
In a way, it’s a very meditative process because it’s so repetitive that your kind of forced to sit there and really focus on what you’re doing, but also let your mind wander. The things that I’ve been thinking about while making it, through the language that I am using when making, can be seen in the actual garment. It’s kind of like a confessional journaling to me.
My grandmother, was an immigrant, and she often knitted and did crochet. She worked with her hands all the time. Did you learn from your grandmother?
My grandmother is a quilter, and my mother is a crocheter, but I learned how to knit when I took a course at Maine College of Art when I was a senior in high school. That’s all I wanted to do with my time was just knitting. I learned how to machine knit when I was in college at Rhode Island School of Design, and that was revolutionary. My mom tried multiple times to teach me how to crochet, but I just never stuck. I was like, oh, I can make a chain of slip knots that’s big enough to encircle the world. So that’s all I wanted to do when I was learning from her, and it became very purpose oriented.
I find your education background to be quite impressive. You went to some big-name schools including ivy league.
Brown is right next to RISD, and they allow students to take classes at both.
Oh, that’s very cool.
At RISD, they required us to take liberal arts classes on top of our studio classes. I kind of discovered that everything pre-Jesus was of interest to me and everything post-Jesus had zero, zero impact. I really focused my studies on ancient world history and, pre-Christian context. I took classes in ancient Greek, ancient Rome, ancient Mesoamerica, and African art. I took a class in hieroglyphs at Brown was like, I love this. This is great. So, I took another class the next semester. I would’ve taken more, but I graduated.
And then you went to my alma mater, Central St. Martin’s in London.
Oh yeah. Just for a quick course on latex design.
Who did you take that from and, and how was it?
It was this guy named Nick. He runs a brand called Tainted Love that does latex wear. I was there to learn a new skill, but a lot of the other people were there because it was their fetish and wanted to cut down on costs by making it themselves. I respect that so much. I had such a fun time, but I was definitely there being like, this is a cool thing that I can add to my repertoire of skills because you can’t do it by machine. The material doesn’t sew, so everything is hand placed and glued and hand cut. If I ever start producing avant-garde collections, this is something I have in my wheelhouse.
I find that fascinating how the garment can take on new shape and form.
Yeah, the thing that interests me the most about knitting is that it eliminates waste by virtue of what it is, right? You’re building up a garment rather than cutting it out of anything, right? You can make the pieces as purpose built as you want them to be. I work from people’s secondhand scraps, so it’s even more less wasteful.
Yes, can we talk more about this idea of less waste? This is very important to the ethos of No Kill Mag. Where did this love of sustainability and the idea of zero waste come from?
For me, trash has always been interesting, even from a very young age when I was painting with my mom and would wipe my brush on a paper towel. I always found the paper towel to be a lot more interesting than what I had actually made.
I’ve heard you say that before. Tell me more about that.
I’m very interested in the unwanted thing, you know, the leftovers of purposeful work as an accidental creation. I think that there’s so much beauty in that.
Do you think that’s because there’s a beauty in the flow or the rawness of authenticity?
Yeah, I do think so. I think also the idea of controlled randomness of the selection of materials from what I have, but ultimately the decisions that I’m making are not pre-planned. Seeing it come together and then having to adjust to all of these very randomized factors. To me, it’s controlled chaos that always comes up with something more interesting than if I had tried to plan it out on purpose.
I interpret that as the sense of control within the freedom to create whatever you want. Where did this idea of zero waste come from as a design ethos— was it living in Maine?
I think it is a little bit. I’m from a small island off the coast of Portland. I would walk the beach and pick up all the trash. I would make these art pieces that included everything that I had found. Fashion is the second most polluting industry on earth after oil production. I had this real crisis of faith, honestly, where I was like this is what [fashion] fulfills me, but I cannot in good conscience make stuff that pollutes and takes from the earth in a way that I view as so extractive. The best that I think I can do with my work is to make sure that nothing goes to waste. You know, every aspect of fiber production involves so much labor from the animal growing the fiber on their bodies to the plants growing it, to the people harvesting it. Even if it’s from an oil-based source there’s so much effort and labor from the earth and from people that goes into making everything that comes through my studio. To me it is a matter of respect and care that I make sure all of it gets used.
I agree. It’s this juncture of our life cycle on the planet, it’s a necessity.
To me, the thing that I care about with clothing is that there’s the zero-waste and that there’s inclusivity. When people wear something that I made, I feel that they’re in my care. That is something that I view as a very sacred agreement. So, if someone is interested in being a part of that process, I want them to absolutely feel welcome to it. It doesn’t matter their body, their gender, their age, their ability, or anything about them. If you are interested in what I make, then I am interested in you.
That gave me chills because that is made with love.
Yeah. Yeah. No, I care very deeply that the people that wear what I make feel celebrated in it.
I can talk to you forever. What do you want this article to reflect?
We all need to think about the processes that we use and how exploitative and extractive they are. For example, in my work, unless I am specifically requested to do it, I don’t use new black fiber because we have enough black clothing to exist until the end of time. It personally makes me sad, so I stand out quite a bit in New York City. With all these young designers that are starting by launching a t-shirt brand or a streetwear brand, I really want to ask, “do you think that the world doesn’t have enough of this?”
When I see people with creative vision, I really, really want everyone to celebrate that more. I wish that we had a world where people were thinking more about how I can express my inner world with my outer appearance. Instead of asking, “is this commercially viable?”, ask, “does this bring me joy?”
photo ©Alexx Duvall
That is so good. I love that.
Oh, thank you so much.
Persephone’s favorite things:
Books Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce
Movie Lady In The Water
Series Forensic Files
Food Mango on Pizza
Trend that you like Excessive accessories and pattern clashing
Trend that you hate Cowboy boots with slip dresses
Favorite quality Curiosity
Person I admire My best friend Axel
Quote to live by “Good from afar, far from good”
What keeps you hopeful The love and care all the people in my life demonstrate when times are tough.
Zara Korutz is a writer, academic, and media expert. Her work explores the intersections of fashion, culture, and identity. She lives in New York with her dog Bijou.
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