Meet the Shetlanders - a series of films featuring people who have chosen to call Shetland their home.
Here we introduce you to the Hunter-Coe family. Joanna Hunter-Coe is, in some ways, the personification of the knitwear she makes and sells on Lerwick’s main street. She’s lively, sparky, but still very Shetland, with a thick brogue that’s survived time living in London. When we meet, she’s just back from a trip with her English husband and two young kids to New Zealand, Bali and Japan.
Her brand began life in 1999. She’d studied textiles in Shetland, at the University of the Highlands and Islands, immersing herself in the long textiles tradition of Shetland and particularly Fair Isle, the little island between Shetland and Orkney. She came out with the core skills handed down through generations of Shetland knitters, but also a simple idea: “to make knitwear fun, and actually wearable for younger women.”
I kind of wanted to use funky, bright, clashing colours to take it away from what was very traditional.”
Joanna Hunter Knitwear was born in a spare room in her parents’ house, and in 2003 she opened Ninian on Lerwick’s Commercial Street to sell her knitwear, jewellery, cushions and other bits and bobs.
The designs all feel very Shetland, but also modern; like the woman behind it, none of it is in any way fussy or twee.
Learn about Shetland and meet more of our featured Shetlanders here: www.shetland.org/live/shetlan...
www.shetland.org
Find us on Facebook - promoteshetland/
Follow us on Twitter - @PromoteShetland
Join us on Instagram - promoteshetland