Cassandra Verity Green:
kitsch retrofuturism

On the wall are three neon bright rubber gloves, covered in googly eyes and pom-poms. There are swatches of devoré-printed lycra and slithers of turquoise blue plastic. Hanging from a rail are several massive, irresistibly tactile knits – like psychedelic seaweed or balls of yarn tangled by giant kittens – in lime green, white and bubblegum pink.

Here, in a multicoloured corner of a studio in Bow, is the doorway to the world of Cassandra Verity Green. “Just, brightness! I can’t help it. I’m just drawn to everything bright and fun and colourful. I love having fun with fashion and not taking it too seriously.”

A boundless enthusiasm for craft is evident when talking to Cassandra Verity Green about her work, which centres on colour, texture and most importantly, knitwear. Her 2013 graduate collection, inspired by Esther Williams – swimmer and star of Hollywood’s halcyon years – and taking its name from her 1949 film Neptune’s Daughter, gathered beaded crop tops, the aforementioned voluminous knits and some contentious fish bowl backpacks (the RSPCA were were less than amused, yet far from being “replaceable ornaments”, the fish in question were Green’s own pets). On their heads models wore white retro bathing caps, streaks of tangerine hair peaking out from beneath.

The lycra-based collection was heavily embellished and labour-intensive. One dress, so laden with clear, icicle-shaped beads that we can’t lift it off the rail with one hand, took six people two weeks to finish. “For my graduate collection I was looking at 50s inspirations, and then giving it a futuristic twist. It wasn’t something that could be reproduced, it was more of a creative exploration,” Green explains.

In the year that ensued, Green set up her own label. Her AW14 collection, a mix of beaded white fishnet and pastel camouflage bodycon looks followed on where Neptune’s Daughter left off, distilled into more wearable pieces with the same brand of kitsch-retro-futurism that the designer looks set to make her own.

Swirling beaded lines snaked down the body which, along with the fishnet revealed skin for a look that harked back to the 80s, clumpy marshmallow yarn sections on the hips and at the cuffs betraying Green’s love of texture. Basically, the collection would be just too straight without them. “I like fun, silly elements. I just think that the format in which quite a lot of things are done are, I find, a bit boring. I feel like back in the day, people were having more fun on the runways. I want to play around with it and have a bit of fun.”

The bodycon elements of Green’s work are at the core of her aesthetic. Even those big tangled showpieces from her graduate collection had sheer stretch lycra as its bedrock and in her ensuing collections it’s a mainstay, either as Esther Williams-style bathing suits or a clinging dress decorated with lines of plastic tubes. Her fascination with lycra has been quickened since joining forces with her sponsor Santoni – an Italian knitting machine manufacturer with whom she forged a professional relationship in the months between graduating and launching her label.

Earlier this year, Green travelled to the company’s Shanghai base to work with a team of technicians to develop techniques and acquaint herself with knitting on an industrial scale. “I did a four year degree and their machines are like nothing I’d ever seen before, so I was learning from scratch again. [Santoni] produce more for underwear and sportswear so I’ve been learning a lot about the technical aspects of certain knit structures on a really intricate level.”

Green’s enthusiasm for technology is infectious and she’s already working with Santoni to establish a programme which will offer students the chance to work with the company’s team and machinery in Shanghai to explore the possibilities of knitwear and fabric construction. It’s generous, we suggest, to share this diamond of a manufacturer with other knitwear designers. Green laughs at the notion of keeping it to herself. Clearly she’s got confidence in her own work, admitting that for every collection she has to narrow down thousands of ideas to create a cohesive body that best expresses what she wants to say.

Autumn/Winter 2015 is looming, details of which are difficult to squeeze out of her – it’s meant to be a surprise. What she will say though, is “I’ve been working into things with embellishments and beading, which I think will always be there with my work. I still want to have the handcrafted element and incorporating embellishment is so important to me.”

Enamoured as she is with craft, with knitwear, and with the technology that pushes it forward, Cassandra Verity Green’s future is undoubtedly bright, skin tight and probably fluffy.