About Collingwood-Norris
Collingwood-Norris is a small ethical knitwear and visible mending business based in Galashiels in the Scottish Borders. Balancing ethical, colourful knitwear and visible mending, designer and mender Flora champions the use of natural fibres and the skills needed to make your clothing last.
Flora started Collingwood-Norris in 2016 after years of working freelance, creating catwalk samples for the likes of Christopher Kane, Jasper Conran and House of Holland, as well as designing hand knit patterns and teaching.
With a strong emphasis on colour, Flora’s work is often inspired by the Scottish landscapes around her. Exploring how colours work together and how they change when knitted with other colours is something that really drives her work.
Flora creates her designs in her small studio on vintage, hand-powered knitting machines, finishing each piece by hand with care. Working exclusively with natural fibres and creating pieces that will transcend seasonal trends, Flora hopes her scarves will be worn and loved over many years.
Flora started exploring the possibilities of visible mending, as her large collection of second-hand sweaters needed some tender loving care.
During lockdown, she created digital workshops and mending guides, which have been very popular, and in the last 2 years her mending work has appeared in Vogue, Country Living Magazine, Harpers Bazaar Germany, The Times, Homes and Interiors Scotland and others.
In August 2021 Flora self-published her book ‘Visible Creative Mending for Knitwear’ to share her repair knowledge, and encourage others to have a sustainable wardrobe that’s unique and personal. Flora now offers regular visible mending workshops, video tutorials, and materials alongside her hand crafted knitwear.