Georgia O’Keefe Revisited

The spring 2016 collection from Berroco featured designs by Emily Nora O’Neil inspired by the work of the painter Georgia O’Keeffe. Emily wrote a beautiful post here about her design process. Emily no longer designs for Berroco but she comes back to style our photo shoots. She and I caught up recently and she had just returned from a trip to an amazing exhibit of Georgia’s work at the Brooklyn Museum,  which features both the artist’s pairings as well has pieces from her handmade wardrobe. Now seemed like a perfect time to revisit Emily’s post originally published in September of 2015. I have taken the liberty of inserting a few of my favorite images from the collection into Emily’s post.

What Inspires Emily Nora O’Neil:

The design team and I collaborated on many of the books together, but I was assigned one book using two favorite Berroco yarns to design all on my own. I usually need a story in my head before designing. I turn to painters and other designers from the past to inspire and lead me to my own creations.

Lately, I have been seriously inspired by the artist Georgia O’Keefe, best known for her large paintings of florals, bones and dreamy southwestern landscapes. I looked to her paintings for inspiration in my own knitted motifs and to her style for styling and photography!

I hung this board above my desk while designing the collection. I especially love the four photographs on the bottom row, which were taken by her lover, Alfred Stieglitz. I love how calmly she appears while moving her body before the camera.

The mood board above is a mixture of contemporary designers and photography that I thought magically paired with Georgia’s portraits and style.

Want to see more? Check out the complete collection in booklet #372 Fiora + Folio, and check out this blog post for additional photo inspiration. For more information about the Brooklyn Museum Exhibit go here, and for more about Georgia O’Keeffe here.

AC