Hades knitwear combines heart and humour

This season the irreverent knitwear company Hades, known for its collaborations with the Cure and Blondie, is celebrating “delusion, reality and love”. Sisters Cassie and Isabel Holland’s label first made ripples a decade ago with their band knits featuring the Slits and David Bowie, and gained further respect with their ethical manufacturing that prioritises local craftsmanship, and fun. Their fantasy collaborator would be John Waters, king of trash. Until then they’re playing with the unusual: the new collection includes an Iron Burn skirt, with a scorch mark across the back.

“We loved the passive-aggressive gesture of destroying a beloved piece of clothing,” says Isabel. “In relationships, resentment can quietly build up, especially around household jobs, which often disproportionately falls on women. There’s also the sheer monotony of these tasks, which can be draining for anyone, regardless of gender. And beyond any deeper meaning, there’s simply the comedic value of the piece itself.”

The skirt makes up a new collection with the Armour knit, a reimagined suit of armour, and the Kiss cardigan inspired by Brancusi’s sculpture. “Knitwear is seen as a gentle medium,” says Isabel. “But it is a malleable craft, it can be sculptural, deconstructed, shredded – and when you play with knitwear a tension emerges between domesticity and anarchy.”

Working on a collection centred around love has taught the Holland sisters how little they really understand romance. “What we have learned, though, is that relationships make us all a little unhinged. Sustaining love requires continual self-negotiation.” Good knitwear, I find, helps.

hades-shop.co.uk