Meet The Latina Designer Making Knitwear For Your Fave Celebs

Caitlin Farradas is making knitwear sexy again. Reviving slinky crocheted bikinis and hand-woven body-hugging gowns, the Cuban American behind Farradas Knits is proving that textile fashion shouldn’t be overlooked. Her designs have been worn by SZA, Avril Lavigne, Charli D’Amelio, and Lizzo, and were even included in Rare Beauty’s 2022 Latinx Heritage Month campaign.

Calling in from her home studio in the south of Florida, the colorful yarn she uses to create her masterpieces — which she collects on her various travels — is on full display. She jokes that her cat is going through a basket full of supplies as we talk, but she doesn’t move to correct her pet. Instead, Farradas settles in, tucking a piece of her dyed-red hair behind her ear before we delve into the nitty-gritty of her up-and-coming fashion label.

In Farradas’s celebrity-loved collections, the bold creativity of Betsy Johnson meets the colorful world of Lisa Frank meets the playfulness of Sanrio. Retailing anywhere from $15 to $1,500, Farradas, who graduated from the Parsons School of Design in New York City, makes every piece herself. “It’s a very fluid process for me,” she says. “I’m making things sometimes straight out of my head, and so it's hard to delegate that.” Her latest collection launched with 10 full looks that took her upwards of four months to complete.

Below, Farradas shares more about her design style, how her Cuban culture inspires her, and the legacy she hopes to leave behind for others.

Elite Daily: How would you describe your brand?

Caitlin Farradas: I've always been inspired by childhood joy. Limited Too was a big one for me, not so much the clothing, but the feeling of being in that store, the interior design, and the experience. Those kinds of hyper-feminine, joyful experiences — like Juicy Couture too — were always really big for me. It’s also very much handmade. I make everything myself, so I'm very connected with this work. So much of myself and my energy is going into it.

ED: How do your designs push the boundaries of what people think knitwear looks like?

CF: A lot of it is being informed through these places that I've lived; being from Miami, it's a notoriously sexy place, and so I've always viewed things through that lens of being flattering and form-fitting. Drag can also be really sexy, so I think it’s always fun to push the boundaries. I think people get very stuck on the traditional knitwear, which I'm super inspired by and have a lot of respect for, but it can just be a starting point in a building block.

The most exciting part of doing custom pieces is seeing how far the world I'm building can go and still feel like my work.

ED: How does your Cuban background influence your designs?

CF: It's so integrated into who I am. First off, the hyper-femininity in being Latina. I think there's such an embeddedness of having your earrings on, having your nails done, and having everything put together. That's been such a big part of my work too, like the ruffles and fun colors. Celia Cruz has always been such a big style icon for me, and I feel like that inadvertently finds its way into my work through tiered things and florals. I think Caribbean culture is kind of known for being in your face and loud and unapologetic in all of the best ways, so I try to channel that into my work.

I'm so proud of being Cuban, and I always tell people growing up down here, I didn't really know I didn't look or I was not perceived as Cuban until I moved to New York at 18. Because in Miami, so many people are Latino, some of them even more fair-skinned or blonde and blue-eyed than me. Sometimes people are like, "Wait, you're Latino. What?" But I’m at a place now where I'm like, “We come in every color and race." It's so interesting to see the perceptions of what Latinidad is for so many people and how vast it is.

Beautiful things that look high-end, that look elegant can also be really comfortable.

ED: How have you noticed the fashion industry treats you as a Latina designer?

CF: I've been very lucky to have mostly positive experiences. There are times when you feel people are calling on you to capitalize on that, which can always feel a little funny, and a little weird. But at the same time, it’s like, I'm excited because I want to show that I'm Latina.

Sometimes when people see how campy my work is, they're not expecting it from a Latina, but I'm like, "Have you seen Celia Cruz? Name someone more camp, I'll wait" because I'm so outside of what is stereotypical. We can come in so many different types that I want to break those stereotypes.

ED: You’ve designed for celebs like SZA, Avril Lavigne, and Rico Nasty. What’s that been like?

CF: With Rico, I made a custom piece for the “Own It” video. That piece was so much fun 'cause it was a lot grungier and a little more edgy than a lot of the work I usually do. There's a lot of black in it, and it was kind of pierced. It was exciting to go out of my comfort zone. I think that's always the most exciting part of doing custom pieces is seeing how far the world I'm building can go and still feel like my work. But it's always been super exciting when those moments happen.

There's so much misogyny baked into why knitwear is undervalued.

A lot of times people are also pulling work from the collections, pre-existing work, so I won't know it's happening and I'll see the image and I'll be like, “Oh my God.” I was listening to the SOS album when I came across the SZA image and I cried. I was just so taken aback. It’s such a personal process. I made everything myself in my home studio a couple of months ago and now it's on this person and it's living this life. For me, that's the most rewarding part.

ED: Can you tell me a little about your newest collection?

CF: It's called Memorias y Recuerdos, and it goes through my time living in New York, LA, and Miami, kind of the mixture of all that. It’s really unapologetic, and dives into a lot of my favorite techniques. I made my first two evening knitwear gowns, because I want to show that knitwear can be red-carpet-appropriate and black tie-appropriate. Done in the correct ways, it can be these really fine high-end items. It doesn't always have to be as casual as people perceive it. With this collection, I was trying to show that you can elevate these pieces.

ED: How do you hope people feel when they wear your designs?

CF: For me, it's always about making people feel really, really beautiful. When people are like, "Wow, I feel incredible and I feel comfortable," that for me is always a huge compliment. There's such a big perception that beauty is pain. That's something I’ve always wanted to challenge with my work. Beautiful things that look high-end, that look elegant can also be really comfortable. They don't have to be digging into you or squeezing you. We can have that coexistence. There's a lot of misogyny rooted in that and I love to break that down.

ED: What are your future goals as a designer?

CF: To continue dressing people, and to do more custom work. I would love to do someone's tour and eventually have a small boutique. I've always been interested in what that space would look like. Those very experimental heavy stores that were so big in the early 2000s and early 2010s, they're something that I would love to bring to life for the brand itself too.

ED: What legacy do you want to leave with your work?

CF: That knitwear is a lot more vast than people give it credit for. A lot of times people get stuck in the fact that it's a craft. And again, there's so much misogyny baked into why knitwear is undervalued because it was something that was based in the home and was for women. I want to break the boundaries of that and put it into a space that is fashion. I would love my work to end up at a Met exhibit one day. I would love for it to be at the level where I'm showing people knitwear is just as fashion and just as high-end as any other couture method. You're putting just as much time in.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.