DesignMarch
66°North x Ýrúrarí
We at 66°North are thrilled to announce our annual DesignMarch project; for 2024 we will collaborate with Ýr Jóhannsdóttir, a textile designer and artist from Iceland based in Reykavik, working under the name Ýrúrarí. DesignMarch is Iceland’s largest design festival, and this year’s festival will take place in Reykjavik on April 24th – 28th.
Ýrúrarí is known for her knitted, humorous, and often wearable art, with a continued focus on sustainability. The shared values between us at 66°North and Ýrúrarí made it a natural partnership, and for this DesignMarch project Ýrúrarí has reinvigorated defective 66°North sweaters by providing them with a new lease of life.
Ýrúrarí has used an innovative design of patches crafted from production off-cuts and sweaters previously deemed unsellable due to minor imperfections. Overall resulting in garments with a renewed value and unique aesthetic; the patches not only conceal the original flaws but also create a truly individual art piece.
In the creative process of designing these patches, Ýrúrarí drew inspiration from the distinctive shapes of the number 66 in the 66°North logo, leading to the development of unique eye designs that align with Ýrúrarí’s signature artistic style. Faced with the challenge of utilizing leftover fabric, Ýrúrarí ingeniously created floating eyes and vibrant arches that assemble into expressive facial features, such as mouth expressions, noses, and eyebrows, creating a vivid personality to each piece.
Both us and Ýrúrarí hold a long-term commitment to circularity. Ýrúrarí has spent her recent years dedicated to the rejuvenation of clothing sourced from recycling centres, her goal is to elevate the value of each garment through meticulous craftsmanship and the integration of distinctive character, diminishing the likelihood of the pieces being disposed of by making them memorable and special to their new owners.
Ýrúrarí wants to inspire individuals to re-evaluate their relationship with textiles, and emphasis the joy and creative potential in the act of clothing repair. We have run our own factories for nearly 100 years, not only making us experts in handicraft and engineering, but also how to utilise cut-offs and leftover fabrics too. The use of deadstock fabrics, creating pieces that are made to last, as well as a repair service that has existed since our brand’s inception, forms the backbone of our approach to circularity.
