Bespoke + Collaborations

Donna Wilson has collaborated on a number of projects – from designing bespoke products for well-known brands and museums to designing stage interiors and puppets for a theatre company. If you’d like to work with Donna on something special, we’d love to hear from you. You can contact us by email here, or speak to someone in the studio on +44 (0)20 7749 0768.

The Hepworth Wakefield

The Hepworth Wakefield commissioned Donna to design a bespoke product to coincide with the reopening of their gallery and their retrospective on the life and work of Barbara Hepworth. Inspired by the ‘pierced forms’ in Hepworth’s scupltures, and her well-documented love of cats, Donna conceived and produced a knitted cat creature, available to purchase exclusively from The Hepworth Wakefield.

www.hepworthwakefield.org

V&A London

After Donna created a knitted version of Jim, the faithful canine companion of the V&A’s first director, Sir Henry Cole, the V&A commissioned Donna to design an owl inspired by the work of textile designer C.F.A. Voysey.

www.vam.ac.uk

Lorena Canals

With a shared love of all things woolly, Donna collaborated with Spanish homeware designer Lorena Canals to produce two colourful rugs. Handcrafted in India, the rugs are part of Lorena Canals’ Woolable collection of machine-washable rugs for the home.

www.lorenacanals.com

Anthropologie

Donna Wilson was approached by retailer Anthropologie to design and produce an exclusive capsule range of knitted accessories. Sold in their physical and online stores, the collection comprised three scarves, three beanies and three pairs of mittens, produced in Scotland from 100% lambswool.

Titlee

Donna is working on an ongoing jewellery collaboration with French brand Titlee, featuring gilt-brass and enamel earrings, necklaces and brooches, all made in France.

www.titlee.fr

Hermès

Tapping into their beginnings as a harness and bridle maker for the carriage trade, luxury goods manufacturer Hermès commissioned Donna Wilson to produce a family of giant knitted horses to be installed within their Paris flagship store over the busy Christmas period. In addition to the horses, Donna also created a forest of trees as well as a variety of knitted decorations which were displayed throughout the store.

www.hermes.com

Mushroom

Donna designed a series of knitted accessories exclusively for Hong Kong retailer Mushroom, comprising unique, bespoke designs, as well as recolours of existing styles.

www.mushroom.hk

V&A Dundee

An international centre of design, V&A Dundee presents the brilliance of Scottish creativity and the best of design from around the world. As a Scottish designer, Donna was commissioned to design some products for their retail store – a knitted lambswool seal named Selkie, and a matching baby blanket.

Then, in 2024, V&A Dundee commissioned the Creature Wall – a wall display showing 20 years’ worth of Donna’s knitted creatures. This colourful installation embodies a sense of nostalgia and the playfulness of childhood, storytelling and folklore, with each creature drawing inspiration from the imperfections and oddities of life.

You can read more about the project here.

www.vam.ac.uk/dundee

25Hours Hotel, Cologne

Donna was approached by the 25Hours Hotel group to design a sleep buddy for their newly opened hotel in Cologne, Germany. Inspired by the futuristic concept, she designed a ‘schlafbot’, a knitted robot for guests to snuggle up with in bed, as well as a range of space-themed knitted objects including rockets and planets, all of which can be purchased in the hotel shop.

www.25hours-hotels.com

Panel + Glasgow Women’s Library

Glasgow-based curators Panel invited Donna to be a part of their project with the Glasgow Women’s Library to coincide with
International Women’s Day 2018. Taking inspiration from the huge range of material housed within the Glasgow Women’s Library archive, Donna’s contribution was a knitted book cushion with the title ‘Votes for Women’, featuring a stylised woman wearing a suffragette sash.

www.womenslibrary.org.uk