Stretched to the limit

Ok, NOW I get the fascination with knit fabrics. It's all thanks to the whole reconstructed T- shirts "revolution".
When I was taking classes for fashion design Paris was still the fashion capitol of the world and couture was still the goal. Clothing that cost $10 looked like it cost, with no detail. And Kate Moss was the last of the Supermodel era before every person that walked a runway started calling themselves that. Of course I am kinda telling you my age, but...
The whole point is I used to want to use only the best quality fabrics, use the most difficult techniques and be this snobbish, pretentious, person who adopted a sort of artistic accent saying crap that ordinary mortals had no idea about. Life happens around your intentions.
Now New York says that it is the fashion capital where everyone with an idea can be a designer, they are working those people from Third World countries to death trying to get us clothes that look like something, I have no idea the names of these "spoiled , stupid little stick figures with poufy lips who think only about themselves", and I am still trying to earn my respect as a designer.
Althought I learned quite a bit from the person I interned with after school, I always secretly snubbed my nose at him because he used to work mostly with knits. Now don't get me wrong he would work with silk and his favorite was double knit wool jersey, but I always thought he took the easy way out. Something that cost him almost no time to make (especially since he would take short cuts like a champ) would cost his customer at minimum $500. I could not understand it. Where was the art? Where was the craftmanship?
So many, MANY, years later after going on my local freecycle.org I picked up a couple bags of clothing from someone who did reconstructive T shirts and jeans. For those who don't know about the practice, teenagers have started expressing their inner designer through taking old t shirts and making something new with it in the same was some of us used to redo sweatshirts for years after the movie Flashdance. When I first recieved the free stuff I just thanked the guy and put the clothes to the side. About a year later I had some lingere I wanted to design and could not figure out how to do it. I remembered the lycra and knit fabrics I had in the basement and decided to use that stuff to work on since I ran out of muslin and did not feel like running to the store and I found freedom! I could do stuff with knit fabrics that I could never possibly do with that silk shantung I bought and it was way more forgiving! I could experiment and in ways I never thought possible and it took almost no time for me to do it since I did not have to worry about it. I felt like a guy who used to date an old fashioned debutaunte and learned how fun a street wise girl could be! I could do things to the knits that that cashmere wool would never let me do! And, I could do it in much less time! What more could one want?
Hey, I still have a love affair with the hand made imported linen or the egyptian cotton, but I now know not to poo poo the t shirts. Especially if they are the onces bringing in the dough!