Carrying on from their first season of collaborative designs, Scottish knitwear brand Pringle and Central Saint Martins' MA students yesterday launched the S/S12 collection at Pitti Uomo. Continuing the unique way of working, Pringle last year brought in the CSM BA students to research and catalogue their extensive knit archive in Hawick factory. The younger students then let the Master designers create a capsule collection from the collated material. The Spring Summer season, shown in sunny Florence, boasted bright colours (orange, green, yellow, purple) and graphic patterns, often thick stripes or distorted argyle checks. Thin knits and twin sets dominated the presentation, and cemented the creative collaboration between the renowned design school and the Scottish heritage brand. Having also taken on Alistair Carr as its new creative director, this event marked the beginning of an exciting new era for Pringle.

Dazed Digital: So this is the second collaborative collection - is it the same students working with Pringle?
Louise Wilson: Yes, it's the same ones. And they worked with menswear as an component from the beginning but it's more visible in this collection. There's an synergy between the two, this is the womens of autumn winter and the mens of the spring summer.

DD:How has this season moved on from the last?
Louise Wilson: The yarns, colour and proportions has changed. It's more cohesive, they've worked together longer by now.

DD: How many students worked on the project?
Louise Wilson: Five of them. They don't work from a brief, it stops them. They can do whatever they want, as long as it's Pringle, of course. Most of the patterns, except for the stripes, are based around the argyle.  

DD: There's lots of it, how much did you produce?
Louise Wilson: 15 menswear styles and 17 womens! 

DD: Now of course Pringle also have an ex-CSM student at the design helm, Alistair Carr. Did you have a hand in that?
Louise Wilson: Not really, there's St Martins student working everywhere. What's great for Alistair is that he worked so long for Balenciaga, that's his badge of honour. That's his training ground, we can only start them off at St Martins. 

Photography by Marc Lilius