Meet Hanna & Suss Cousins | Knitwear Designers, Eskay Label

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hanna & Suss Cousins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hanna & Suss, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Our thought process behind starting Eskay Label was to focus on all things knit, from a fun, sustainable and inclusive point of view. I always grew up around knitwear. My mother Suss got her start hand knitting the Cosby sweaters in the 80s in NYC. We moved to LA when I was a baby and she opened up a store on Beverly Blvd. Here she sold high end, wild, funky knits, taught knitting classes, wrote her knitting books and did costume design knits for films such as The Grinch, The Matrix, Scooby Doo and more. Hand-looming, yarn, hand crochet and all things encompassing knitwear have always been a part of our family’s life. Eskay (which stands for my moms name Susanne Karlsson) was started a few years ago as an opportunity for us to get to work together as mother-daughter partners. We go back and pull from my mom’s creative history for our designs and techniques that we do currently. So I guess for me, part of the thought process was celebrating her work and recreating it together. The best part we tapped into and use was her hand-looming techniques. When we hand-loom and hand-knit pieces, it allows for waste-free production – which is important to us and I’m sure is to most people (I hope!). So yeah, we knit locally, work waste-free and source sustainable and recycled yarns to tie it all together!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Putting together knitwear designs is such a technical art. It’s combining colors and textures you feel/see in your soul (sounds cheesy but it is) with a balance of matching weights of yarns through tensions of knitting (tight or loose) and plies of yarn (making the knit heavy or light). There is so much balance in creating knit downs (swatches we make before knitting an entire piece). Suss and I often make our own yarn blends and play a lot. Currently we are mixing a recycled cotton yarn (made from cotton factory waste and plastic bottles) with cashmere. The result is a super durable vibe with softness. It’s not always easy finding the perfect hand and feel for a sweater, poncho or knit pant, it’s a lot of trial and error. Adding in more ply, changing the tension. All of this effects the outcome and on top of that what you come up with has to match the specific item being knit. You wouldn’t always come up with the same knit down you do for a sweater as you do for a pant. Overall it feels like a fun math problem but an exciting picture being painted at the same time.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Hmm this is tricky. After 2020 I found my true calling of my love to stay in and cook intricate things haha. All our friends love our parents house. My mom knows how to set up a spread and my dad has incredible knowledge of wine. Dinners always turn into late nights. If we eat out, we always go to Escuela on Beverly Blvd. for amazing tacos and margs or the bar at El Coyote (walk in and make a sharp right) for a big booth and margaritas (AGAIN). Most Saturdays we drive to El Porto in Manhattan Beach for lots of surfing (done by my boyfriend, Suss and I watch) and sneaky rose accompanied by tuna salad.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I think the obvious for me as far as being grateful for/mentorship is my mom and partner Suss. She is the absolute hardest worker I know. She never stops pushing and her brain literally never turns off. Suss taking me on and trusting me as a partner to run a business with was extremely special (especially as her daughter haha) and we are best friends. I love her business etiquette because she treats people with love and kindness. She maintains positive work relationships as well as an incredible work environment. She is so giving and respectful to the craft of making what we make. Our knitwear technicians have been with her for over 20 years and now I’m lucky enough to work with them.

Website: www.eskaylabel.com

Instagram: @eskaylabel

Image Credits
Chloe Rosey James Chrosniak