Louise Walker

Getting Wiggy With It

You might not think a knitted wig sounds too appealing or practical but that's where you'd be wrong. Cue, creative entrepreneur Louise Walker of Brixham, some wool, a head full of striking ideas and a real talent for photography and you'll understand how she took the internet by storm in 2012. You wouldn't believe how successful she's become in the five years since she graduated from the Arts University College of Bournemouth either.

Discovering knitting in her final year as a photography major was clearly destiny (she says her grandmother was an amazing knitartist, too) as it overtook her life and became a destiny-guiding passion. Inspired by her Mother, a hairdresser, she chose to concentrate her final project on hair as an important aspect of personal identity. It was a stroke of genius though she didn't know that at the time nor did she know how well they would be received.

The majority of entrepreneurs will tell you they never imagined doing what made them successful. It's all about passion and getting caught up in something which brings you life and joy. She created something no one else was doing at the time and found she had a real penchant for it.  She was extremely talented at making charming, bold and elegant wigs from wool and boy, do they make you sit up and pay attention.

She devoted time to the creative process as a means to find and understand herself but she ended up helping so many women. Iconic hairstyles, reminiscent of times gone by, hearken back to eras of glamour (from the 20s to the 70s) and provide women dealing with Chemotherapy and Alopecia hair loss with a plethora of alternatives to a bald head. One of the great joys of the collection is that you can change your identity on a whim, much  like changing an outfit or whipping out a new lipstick colour.

Now she's building herself a very nice empire, too. Today, Louise has moved from a one-girl band working out of her bedroom to a small team of 3 (Cara handles PR and Octavia handles Graphic Design) based in a South London workshop. Her website is so beautifully and practically designed, it's a pleasure to surf. An Etsy shop, a comprehensive blog, customer competitions such as Maker Of The Week (MOTW) and Who's Knitting Sincerely Louise (WKSL) and numerous free downloadable patterns are all available with a simple click of the mouse. Specialising in fun, she designs patterns for faux taxidermy kits, animal hats and animal heads (a fun alternative to actually hunting) and she has a massive following! It's no wonder, she's very special.

In 2013, Louise Walker granted us an interview for our first showcase issue and it is such an honour to have had her on board the issue and to see how great she is doing years later. These images are all from her first collection 2012.

Photography by Louise Walker

Written for VMM by Summer Crosbie MA