Profile: Sofia Munk – Only Natural Design Competitions

Sofia Munk

Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design, Conservation

INTRODUCTION I am a 28-year-old digital knit designer, born in Japan and based in Copenhagen. Graduating from the Royal Danish Academy in 2025, I design for both spatial and bodily contexts. My mission is to restore value to textiles, challenging growth-driven logics that reduce worth to what can be counted or sold. Through "magical techniques," I translate the wonder of nature into knit, emphasizing care, emotion, and lived experience. Designing from a place of love, I hope to foster deeper connections to nature — believing that true appreciation would transform how we consume and live. Sustainability is at the core of my practice. I approach it critically, recognizing that many current solutions prioritize measurable efficiency over genuine planetary care. Concepts like "recycled polyester" and "durability" are often framed as final answers, while deeper cultural, emotional, and philosophical shifts are urgently needed. Through my work, I challenge the dominant logic by engaging "magical techniques" and natural motifs — aiming to cultivate awe, love, and connection to nature. I believe that if people truly appreciated the living world, overconsumption would no longer be possible. In this way, I see textiles not just as products, but as a means of reshaping values and ways of being. ____________________________________________________________ DESIGN METHOD FILOSOPHY As a textile designer, my path begins from a profound digital knit-specialized knowledge. I work from the textile outward — from its texture, stretch, and structure — into form and shape in the meeting with the body. Throughout my master, I have developed a material-driven design innovation method, where I start from the material to create shape for the body. The method “enable a transdisciplinary practice for working with materials in their raw state and enable design for circularity in future textile recycling contexts. Additionally, working from the fabric pieces enables me to create shapes that are better suited for diverse body types. I do pattern cutting differently from the traditional approach. Instead of cutting pattern pieces, I knit pieces of spiraling rounded fabric that I then drape around the body. Knitting panels directly in rounded shape and draping these around the body creates a zero-waste construction. Since the pieces are already their right size, no waste fabric is cut off.

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Everyday Miracle

Category: Apparel

Competitions: Fashion Competition 2025

In my project, "Everyday Miracle", I have translated the magic of a sunset by the ocean into a digitally knitted dress mimicking the spiraling currents of water and sea shells and the magic sensation of the setting sun. Here is a description of how the different elements come into play in the final design: 1. Illusion spiral - Technical Explanation As a designer I want to change how we interact with textiles, fostering a more appreciative and mindful approach. I focus on using the digital knit to explore its possibilities to elevate the craftsmanship and quality of knit design. For this project, I work with the illusional ”shadow knit”, which reaveals its motive depending on what angle it’s viewed from. I combine it with partial knit to create spiraling shapes. I wish to illustrate a dreamlike transformation, capturing the delicate shift we are currently experiencing while we try to imagine a more sustainable future. 2. Changing Horizon - Inspiration My work is deeply connected to the landscape of my childhood—growing up along the windswept coast of Denmark. In the constantly shifting horizon, where land meets sea and sky, I find inspiration. Here, I invite the mind to expand, to look beyond the obvious. The landscape is at once natural and dreamy, a slow miracle of nature’s daily cycle—from dawn to dusk. This transition serves as my primary inspiration, also for the color development. I wish to elevate the ordinary into extraordinary. It is an invitation to see the world anew. 3. Harmonious Natural Shapes - Shape Development In this project, I seek to blend the organic with the crafted, using the interplay between form and material to create something connected to nature. I work with draped, partial knit pieces that come together to form circular shapes with a voluminous balance, creating a harmonious yet dynamic silhouette in 100 % fine meriono wool. In shape, I have created a spiraling movement using short rows and decreases. Starting from the right hand, this piece sprials all around the body reflecting the movement of the ocean and the harmonious structure of natural forms. 4. New wool assosiations - Material description and reasoning The choice of making a garment of 100% ultrafine Harmony wool quality from Tollegno1900 came from a desire to challenge the way we think about natural fibres such as wool. Wool is often assosiated with old knit tradition and something heavy. Working with the ultrafine merino wool on a STOLL CMS 822 K with a fine gage has been very inspiring and added a layer to my understanding of wool not only as something that has to do with knit tradition, but also how knit design with wool might look in the future. It has been interesting to drape with a material that is remarkably different than I usually use, and discover what happens in when forming with a light drapy material in relation to the body. The ordinary miracle dress feels so light and comfortable to wear and can be styled up or down, depending on which context it is used in.