A Cardigan for a Bride, and Everything That Comes With It

It never really started with a cardigan, it started inside HKN Studio, with a dress, a gold one, soft, fluid, almost melting into the body, the first bride I ever worked with, Rotem, and something shifted there, the moment knitwear entered my own language as a designer, not as reference, but as something I build from within.

Rotem elegantly poses beside a vintage car, showcasing her custom-designed, champagne-colored, textured bridal gown.

Rotem had seen a dress worn by Riff Cohen at IndieNegev, and something stayed with her, the texture, the way it moved, the feeling of it, she knew she wanted something similar for her own wedding, not the same dress, but something that carries that same energy, translated into her own body, her own moment.

That dress didn’t follow the rules of a traditional wedding dress, it moved differently, it followed the body instead of holding it, more like liquid than structure, and without planning it, that became the beginning of bridal knitwear at HKN Studio

Riff Cohen, Indienegev festival 2022. Photo by Soulnoshka.

Since then, knitwear has returned again and again, not as a trend, not as something borrowed from the outside, but as part of the way I construct garments, a way of thinking through yarn, through texture, through movement.

When I made a knit wedding dress for my younger sister, it became even more personal, white, quiet, but layered with detail, hundreds of natural pearls stitched by hand, each one placed slowly, deliberately, turning the garment into something that holds time, something that carries process and memory inside it. This is what handmade knitwear means inside HKN Studio: it is not decoration, it is structure, the way the piece is built, the way it moves, the way it lives on the body.

And then came the cardigan, a knitted cardigan for a bride, light, open, almost transparent, something that doesn’t try to cover the wedding dress, but to accompany it, to move with it, to stay close without controlling, not quite a layernot quite a garment- something in between.

Tal’s piece developed slowly, through meetings, fittings, and conversations. She and her mother brought references from knitted garments they had seen in museums around the world, pieces rooted in history, technique, patience, and together we translated that into something that belongs to HKN, something contemporary, something personal, something that exists between past and present.

Eva and the wool shawl, photo taken by Stav Eskenazi

and then, somewhere colder, Belgium, a winter wedding, a different need, a different response from the body, and knitwear answered again, this time through a soft wool bridal shawl, warm but still light, something that wraps without hiding, something that holds without restricting.

This is not about what bridal knitwear is becoming elsewhere, this is about how it is being shaped inside HKN Studio, through specific women, specific stories, specific relationships, each piece responding differently, from a knit wedding dress to a knit cardigan for a bride, to a knit bridal shawl for winter.

Bridal knitwear at HKN Studio doesn’t aim for perfection, it allows irregularity, softness, and movement. It doesn’t freeze the body into shape, it follows it, and that is where its strength lies.

Because a wedding is not static, it moves, it unfolds, it shifts, and the garment needs to move with it. A handmade knitwear piece created at HKN Studio, whether it’s a knit wedding dress, a knitted cardigan for a bride, or a knitted bridal shawl, becomes something that stays, something that holds memory long after the moment passes.

explore knit wedding dresses, bridal knitwear, and handmade knitwear for brides at HKN Studiohttps://www.hknstudio.com/