Whimsy, Punk, And Knitwear: An Interview With The Founder Of Tildysucks
Tildy is a creative force in the world of knitwear and crochet, known for their whimsical yet punk-inspired designs that blend traditional craftsmanship with modern flair. Their journey began at just six years old in a school knitting club, but it wasn’t until their late teens—when they acquired a knitting machine—that their passion turned into a thriving business. Now a student at Central Saint Martins (CSM), Tildy creates unique, handcrafted hats and garments inspired by films, folklore, and their countryside upbringing. Using sustainable British wool and even spinning their own fibres on their grandmother’s spinning wheel, Tildy’s work is a testament to their dedication to craftsmanship and individuality. Under the cheeky business name ‘Tildysucks,’ they share their bold, colourful creations with the world, balancing their studies, a full-time internship, and a love for the process of making.
How did you come up with your business name ‘Tildysucks’?
When I started university, we were very much told that we had to become a brand and I just found it funny for it to be my name and ‘I suck’. When I tell people that, I have to explain it’s meant to be funny—I don’t actually think I suck!”
How long have you been creating your own knitwear and crocheting?
I started knitting when I was 6. I was in a primary school knitting club but it was only when I was around 17/18 that I picked it up properly and got a knitting machine. Now, I’m doing it as my degree so it’s become my entire life.
How did you turn your passion for knitwear into a business?
I think it was very much that I really enjoyed fashion, making things, and doing something with my life. Since I love making hats, it’s a very easy step to go from that to ‘I want to start making these for other people rather than having 20 for myself.’ The reason I sell hats is because I wear them every day and so I make them for myself and I realised that a bunch of people might enjoy them too.
How do you get inspiration for your different designs?
It’s entirely based on things that I am interested in. I take a lot from films that I like and with being at CSM, you’re constantly surrounded by insanely talented people so it’s very easy to feel inspired when that’s the crowd you’re with.
Do you have a favourite material to work with?
I work the most with British wool and I use a spinning wheel that was my grandmother’s so I can make some of my own wool. I love the texture of it as it’s soft and it felts but is also expensive to work with.
How do you price your items to reflect the time and effort you put into them?
I’ve been told numerous times that I do it poorly in terms of it being cheap for my labour. Since I’ve only been doing it for a couple of years, and I am still a student, I pay myself £10 an hour plus the cost of the materials I work with. I do the exact amount of hours it takes plus the materials which are not sustainable for the future but I’m obviously sensitive to the fact that people can’t afford £200 hats. I’m not at the point of being able to sell them at that price, so I try to find a medium between the two of them.
How long does it typically take to make one of your hats?
They usually take at least two hours depending on how complex they are but I’m very good at making basic bonnets in half an hour if I really rush through them. When making the spike hat, it took me at least 4 hours and was hand knitted so that adds extra time on top of it. When I started making things, it would take me days to have a final product. Because I do it every day now, I've built that tolerance in knowing how to do it.
Can you walk me through your process from concept to finished product?
I will either have an idea in my head or I’ll see an image of something and then I have a set of patterns for different styles of things that I adapt to things I know how to make which I then turn into something new. A lot of the time, I have to work out the colour work which is essentially like pixel art: each pixel is a stitch and so you need to work out where they are, what colour they are and then you do that by hand or on the machine. I’d say it’s quite mathematical and I’d argue that knitting is just maths in itself. For patterns, because every wool is different, it will knit differently when you do it. Therefore, you need to do ‘gauge swatching’ which is figuring out how big something will be. You make squares and through that you’ll know how many stitches it is by rows, measure it, and then you work out a ratio between them, and then that ratio becomes how big you want the garment to be.
When creating your custom designs, how do you collaborate with the customer?
People usually come to me with something specific in mind and the colour work or illustrations they’d like to be knitted onto the hats. I then interpret what they would like into my own aesthetic.
What would you say is the most challenging part of running your business?
I think it’s very much pricing and having the time to make things. At the moment I’m doing a full time internship so I’m working 5 days per week and then I come home and do more work so it ends up being difficult to balance everything at once. I’m currently a textile and embroidery intern at Simone Rochas and do all of the sampling for them. I’ve been working a lot with beads and turning it into sort of brooches or integrating it into the clothes themselves.
How would you say your business has evolved since you started?
I first started in 2020 but wasn’t selling things yet. I had a TikTok account and also while wearing my own work, people would come up to me and ask where they could buy my hats. Then they find out that I make them myself and I'd end up having another customer!
Do you have a favourite piece that you’ve made?
Yes, I made a jumper based off Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations of Pamelot and took me upwards of 20 hours to make. He was a queer illustrator in the 1920s. My final collection for CSM is going to be based off of Arthurian legend so I’ve been making things vaguely based around it. It’s made of mohair, and cotton with lots of illustrations which I love to do myself.
Do you have a memorable story of one of your projects?
With machine knitting, sometimes it will just physically come off the machine as you’re working on it. Last year, I broke my machine and they stopped making the brand I had in the 90s so there was only a limited amount of them. That also meant that it was hard to have it fixed and so I couldn’t do my work for months.
What advice do you have for someone who wants to turn their craft into a business?
You do really have to enjoy it as a thing since you have to dedicate so much of yourself to it. I love knitting and I’m also happy to make things for other people because I still enjoy the actual process itself of knitting.
In terms of your CSM work, how would you say it differs from having it as a hobby and business?
With everything I sell, they’re usually accessories and more ready to wear pieces since it’s more accessible to people. Hats are easy to sell because everyone has a head but with the more fashion based element, it’s more avant-garde in how you can’t wear it day to day. They’re quite extravagant pieces like my White Show collection, which had sleeves and a 2 metre bow on the back that dragged along the floor.
What do you see yourself doing once you graduate?
I’d love a job. I do want to sell my knitwear full-time as a business but I also love doing freelance work. I want to stay within the fashion industry and perhaps do things within the costume world of film and television. I’m currently obsessed with the Poor Things costume design and would love to do something similar.
How would you say your knitwear embodies your personality and style?
Being in a class with 26 pupils all doing knitwear and working on the same projects makes you realise how different everyone’s work is. It’s quite similar to art in how personal it is but my specific trait is colour word or ‘intarsia’ as it’s called more formally. I’m also from a small countryside town outside of Dorset and draw from English folk and the countryside. I did Morris dancing as a child and a lot of my work encompasses my upbringing. I love using British wool and when I spin my own wool, that’s something that’s integral to my work. When I started, I used acrylic wool which is essentially just plastic so now, I try to use as many natural fibres as possible but wool is still damaging. But buying things that you like and will use rather than having excess is very important.
Do you have any future projects coming up?
I really do love making bonnets and I think I want to do more complex ones. I’d like to do more crazy colours and designs and put spikes on hats. My last project was a collaboration with a friend on a Joan of Arc and English folk tradition style. You can actually buy wool that has wire in it and I’ve also knitted with just wire.
What would you define your style as?
I always feel quite whimsical in my style but I really do enjoy punk fashion and relate to both the politics and aesthetics of it. A lot of my designs are inspired by folk which is quite jaunty. I’d like to think of myself as a punk version of that.
Do you think you’d ever do a fashion show of your work?
Hopefully, I’ll be in the CSM press show in two years when they do the graduate BA collection in 2026.
Everyone gets to show off their work in the internal show but then only 60 people are selected to be in the press show with major fashion magazines like Vogue, Dazed, and Id. There’s about 150 people in my year so usually around ⅓ of people are selected to show off their work at the show.
Your journey wasn’t directly to CSM, it was to UCL. What initially drew you to study history there?
I’ve wanted to be a historian since I was 11 years old and it was my dream. I was a first year at UCL in 2020 during COVID and I only lasted until February of 2021 before dropping out. After that, I moved back to my hometown and it was within two weeks that I had been accepted to a foundation program to do art. I had been illustrating my whole life but I had never done fashion or art as something ‘proper’. This foundation course was at AUB (Arts University Bournemouth) which is the closest to my hometown. When I was there, I was encouraged to apply to CSM which I hadn’t heard of before… I applied there for knitwear and got accepted!!
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about being at CSM?
It would probably be not getting stressed out as easily. I would get ill at the end of every project and be completely battered to the bone. Luckily, I’ve never had to pull an all-nighter but some of my friends have shown up to a class of 7 hours not having slept. In these classes, you present your work with your model next to you to the entire class, and it is largely what you are marked on in terms of presentation. Your presentation is meant to be around 10 minutes but it usually takes longer.
What advice would you give to someone who is unsure about their passion being their full time degree or job?
I’ve always thought if you want to do a degree in something, you should do it. When people tell me ‘oh I wish I had done fashion design,’ you still can! I started at CSM when I was 20 years old and I was the second youngest in the class. Most other people were in their late 20s and had done other degrees and careers. People in fashion are rarely 18 and doing it straight out of school. Most people on my course did not know how to use a machine and went into it blindly. We’re taught that the process is a lot more important than the final outcome because they want to see how we think about things. We have to do around 40 illustrations, possible designs, and development for those designs and ideas.
How do you do the illustrations?
Obviously they vary but I was told I have the best illustrations a tutor had seen in 20 years. I love to draw and have been doing so since I was a child but it’s a personality element of how you want to express yourself. There’s a difference in doing a literal version of what you’re making and a fashion illustration which conveys mood, and how things feel. My illustrations are hand-drawn on paper with a fountain pen and I keep those in a sketchbook. You then scan that sketchbook into a digital portfolio, making it into a physical copy for interviews (40 pages) and a condensed, digital version (10 pages).
All images Courtesy of Tildysucks.
Keep up with Tildy on Instagram and TikTok: @tildysucks
Or to buy any of their pieces: https://tildysucks.bigcartel.com/
Written by Daria Slikker
Edited by Daisy Packwood, Fashion Editor
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