MEET THE DESIGNER…
Danielle Simpkin is an apparel and footwear designer from Freetown, Massachusetts. They graduated from RISD in 2019 with a BFA in Apparel Design. They currently reside in Fairhaven, MA, and is the sole owner and designer of D. Simpkin.
Danni describes themselves as a “Tech-style” designer, mashing up the idea of technology-inspired apparel and the creation of Textiles. While working with machine knitted, slow fashion items, they are inspired by the technology that informs their world, including the long history and influence that handmade crafts have on the internet, and vice versa. Computer programming has its origin in textiles, with the earliest computers taking inspiration from the punch cards that knitting and weaving machines use (and that Danni uses in their own work today!). Knitting is binary code, whether its knits and purls as a hand knitter would use, or with punch cards, like on a knitting machine, where 1s and 0s are instead colors and skipped stitches. This history is then tied together in Danni’s work with the contemporary practice of pixel art, where one stitch can equal a pixel on a screen, and pixel art can often be the digital equivalent of fiber arts such as cross stitch and knitting.
With these influences in mind, Danni creates fun and vibrant knitwear items, ranging from hats, scarves, and various sweater types. They have also worked with concepts dealing with identity and gender, manufactured vs. natural, and a nostalgia for games, toys, and pop culture that immersed their world from a young age. By creating unique designs that are a little bit nerdy, a little bit cute, and a whole lot of colorful, Danni strives to create products that manifest what they love into the world.
About the Brand…
All D. Simpkin products are made with natural fibers (Wool, Cotton, Linen, Silk), and/or synthetic fibers (Polyester, Rayon, Nylon, Etc.) that are purchased or found second-hand. D. Simpkin wants to focus on preventing new plastics from being made, and focus on using natural materials and materials that already have a life in this world and reduce how much of these materials go to waste. All wool is sourced from the United States, including some hand dyed by local dyers in the Rhode Island and Massachusetts Area. D. Simpkin is a zero-waste brand, with any scraps cut from the knitting is repurposed into new yarn for other products down the line. Some products even use yarns from deconstructed fast-fashion items to give them a second, longer life. All items are recommended to be hand-washed with a mild detergent and laid flat to dry to ensure that each piece can be loved and worn for as long as possible!