CULTURE
Crochet Couture RACHEL HUGHES THREADS THE NEEDLE ON RUNWAYREADY GARMENTS By Belle Yennie
As a little girl, Rachel Hughes carried a plastic binder with fashion sketches around her elementary school. Class-
Rachel Hughes and friends model a series of crochet designs. Brooke Tramel
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THE PITCH | September 2023
mates stopped to view her work, asking if she would pretty please share what she designed. Sometimes, the teacher requested a chat with Hughes about the commotion, but the students still needed to catch a glimpse of her runway artwork. Similar to the students, crowd members today turn their heads and drop their jaws when they see Hughes’ designs come to life out of yarn. “In those sketchbooks, I would draw the women on a runway because I just wanted my looks to be there,” says Hughes. “Something that I’ve just dreamed about since I was a little girl is really happening.” Hughes eventually learns her selftaught fashion craft from YouTube and achieves her childhood dream of becoming a designer. However, she doesn’t know how to use a sewing machine. Instead, she crochets every outfit from hand, using 24,000 feet of yarn to create her Heartland International Fashion Week collection. With a fringe and flowers theme, her designs showcase scrunched yarn strands mimicking boa scarves and draping vines on a lily-pad-inspired outfit. Balancing a fulltime job, husband, and two kids, her passion is tough to manage with limited hours. Hughes says it takes her a while to make a single outfit: a week, give or take. Her crochet journey didn’t always come naturally. Hughes remembers when it took nearly two weeks to craft a single stitch for family Christmas scarves in 2018. The process frustrated her but paid off when she received compliments from family and strangers about her work. Even today, when challenges arise in her crochet career, she repeats her mother’s encouragement to keep going. Instead of only heavy winter clothing, Hughes crafts pieces that last into summer and channel her inner childhood sketches. “I sucked. I was not getting it. I wanted to just throw it all away and buy a scarf instead of making it. But my mom—she just said ‘stick to it,’” says Hughes. “Once I realized that I could crochet clothes, I mixed my new hobby with my longtime dream.” As a 2020 New York Fashion Week designer, Hughes’ eye-catching crochet work receives appreciation from models. If the