The Return of Haruka Knitwear: Beyond Fairtrade
Click Here for the Haruka 2025 Knitwear Collection
PRE-ORDER DEADLINE is 21st NOVEMBER 2025 (or sooner if capacity is reached!)
After nearly a decade, the iconic Haruka knitwear is back! This considered capsule collection is 100% lambswool, aligning with our commitment to work with natural, real wool as opposed to synthetic fabric mixes. All of our styles are crafted from high-quality yarn and individually dyed in-house, enabling us to offer our bespoke, extensive range of earthy, elegant colours. As always, our focus is on inclusive sizing, slow fashion and investment pieces. We are offering 7 core styles in an unbelievable 14 colours plus accessories such as obi belts, stoles, hats and leg warmers.
The entire collection is being sold on a pre-order basis, building upon our ethos of slow, sustainable, intentional fashion, made in a fairtrade, transparent and ethical way. Rather than us guessing the number of orders and over-producing items that we can’t afford unnecessarily, this new system is in line with our ecological priorities and our realistic parameters, and enables you to choose a dedicated piece of knitwear in your size and your colour. This is not about instant gratification. Instead, it’s about discernment: cost per wear and thoughtful choices that last.
System Change – Collaboration and Friendship
This collection was born from friendship, shared history, and the belief that collaboration can change the way fashion works. It marks a new chapter for Haruka – a partnership with Poonam, and a project two years in the making. Behind the scenes are the realities of production made more tricky on the ground by the realities of being an independent small business. Things like minimum order quantities, lead times, dyeing times, how to offer it on my website and a million other things. You name it, there’s a logistic! To be honest this is the most complex production I have EVER done! And yet, I am energised and inspired by the hurdles and the possibilities. For the first time, I am sharing a business equally: half the investment, half the work, half the risk, a joint share of any profits. This is beyond fair trade; this is real system change. And it matters to me. It matters a lot and it is coming from the heart.
Poonam has been in my life for almost two decades. When we first met in 2007, she was running a sampling and production unit in Kathmandu. Working with her was, in many ways, the beginning of the Haruka label as we know it – even though I had already been designing and producing clothes in Varanasi for several years. Together, we created ethical clothing in a range of sustainable fabrics; one of the highlights of this period was our adventures with hemp silk. Poonam’s technical mastery and creative insight transformed my own approach to design. Her career has spanned running her own boutique and factory, collaborating with English and European brands, technical training and product development, and auditing factories across Asia and Africa for health and safety, social responsibility, crisis management, compliance and, most importantly in this case, quality checks to ensure the garments were accurate to the technical specifications given. This is why Poonam’s skills are SO crucial to this knitwear capsule collection. There is no way I would attempt it without her.
Poonam’s influence on my work, and on Haruka, has always run deep. We are the same age and have developed the length, breadth and depth of our friendship over years and moments. Continents and experiences. Enduring through births and deaths. Through transitions, traumas and triumphs. I have immense gratitude for her and cannot imagine collaborating with anyone else on a partnership project like the relaunch of the Haruka knitwear collection.
The Knitwear is being produced by our friend Motikaji (see picture of man with cat below), who produced the original Haruka knitwear nearly ten years ago. So, vitally, we have all worked as a team before. Motikaji brings a unique blend of old-world charm and modern expertise to our knitwear project. He has moved all his knitwear machines into his house in Basantapur, the ancient part of Kathmandu. Motikaji’s background is in training government vocational school students and running his own home-based knitting factory. He is himself a master knitwear technician and proud member of the Maru Ganesh temple clan, a people that have long inhabited that area since ancient times. He still has a deep involvement in the ancient shamanic Buddhist practices of his culture and is a skilled musician and performer in the annual Indra Jatra chariot procession. He is quite a few years older than me and he walks up to the top of Swayambunath monkey temple every morning before the sun rises. He also brings fresh Nepali style doughnuts (one of the wonderful breakfast offerings of Kathmandu) to breakfast meetings every morning with Poonam and I at her flat. They sell out super early so, when I am there, he becomes my doughnut supplier! Excuse me my little diversion from knitwear. It’s so important for me to get the human angle across. People are what make my world go round.
The tide is turning against mass, unfettered production. We are not machines – we are human, and we crave human stories. There is a growing awareness of slow fashion, independent businesses and cost per wear, as well as a growing demand for things that have meaning, things that last and return to the earth when they are done. It is human to desire beauty, but what we long for now is beauty with provenance, created with care. And so it’s important we ask the question #WhoMadeMyClothes?
There is so much more I could say. If you want to dive deeper into our story, friendship and the context in which we work in Kathmandu, read the very heartfelt blog I wrote after my 2025 visit. I personally love this piece of writing :
https://haruka.co.uk/2024/04/05/poonam-kathmandu/
Come To My Studio
I know this is not possible for all of you which is why I have gone to such lengths to upload everything as comprehensively and as honestly as I can on my website. However, for those of you that can make it, I absolutely encourage you to be in touch. You have a month, until the 21st of November (or sooner if we reach our projected capacity!) Whats App works best for me. My number is +44 7912662387. I will put out some Open Studio days on my social media, but mainly, make a time to come and visit and try the samples on, bring your friends, talk to me. Let’s make this happen! There is never any pressure to buy with me, I am just not that kind of person. And besides, I believe our knitwear sells itself! This will be an ongoing collaboration for me and Poonam. I know that in my bones. What shape it will ultimately take remains part of the great mystery. And that is what is so exciting about it for me. We are in the realms of raw creativity. One thing I know is that right now is a great time to get onboard, we are going to good places.
For those of you who can’t make it to the studio, I encourage you to arrange a time for a whatsapp video call when I am in my studio and talk it through. I can show you the samples, try them on, give measurements. Freestyle! I have done it a few times with people and it really works. Personal shopping at its best! I also want you to meet Poonam so I am going to try to figure out some online event. Anyone want to interview us? If you are out there and you have ideas, I want to hear from you. I also have ideas of my own. Watch this space!
Love Amanda and Poonam X
‘ Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving.
It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair.
come, even if you have broken your vow a thousand times.
Come, yet again, come, come’
Jal ad-din Rumi
THE SMALL PRINT
Terms and Conditions
Each Haruka knitwear piece is made to order, created especially for you. Because of this bespoke process, we’re unable to offer refunds simply because you ‘change your mind.’
In line with the Consumer Rights Act 2015, you are entitled to a refund, repair, or replacement if your bespoke garment is faulty or does not match the agreed description or specification. Please note that the standard 14-day cooling-off period does not apply to made-to-order or bespoke items.
Sizing and Measurements
Measurement charts are provided on every product listing, after the photographs.
Please read these carefully, as they show the final garment measurements of the piece you’ll receive. Photographs, size guidelines, and model information are included to help visualise fit, but your decision should be based on the listed measurements.
If you’re unsure how to measure yourself accurately, here is a how-to guide at:
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/beauty/fashion/a39506045/how-to-measure-yourself
A Note on Colour
The floating garment pictures have been photoshopped to illustrate the different colour choices available and help you to dream your perfect power piece into being. However, please look at all the photographs of the actual knitwear pieces on the models for a more accurate representation of colour. As you are aware, colour displays differently depending on the screen of the viewer, so please take this into account.
Pre-Order and Payment
By placing a pre-order, you agree to pay a 50% deposit (plus postage) at the time of ordering. The remaining 50% will be requested before your finished garment is dispatched, via a secure payment link sent to your email.
Production and Delivery
We aim to deliver all pre-order knitwear by January 19th, 2026 (‘Blue Monday’). Every piece involves a complex, small-batch process – from bespoke knitting to in-house dyeing – and our colour range is intentionally broad and ambitious. We wouldn’t make this offer if we didn’t believe we can do it. We are fully behind ourselves. However, while we’ll do everything possible to meet this delivery date ( believe me, me and Poonam are both perfectionists!) we cannot guarantee it absolutely. Production takes place in Nepal, where current political conditions may cause unforeseen delays. Because this is new territory for us with a variety of variables due to the sheer scope of the offer ( think how long is a piece of string!) if you haven’t received your knitwear by February 1st, 2026, you will be able to request a refund of your deposit and cancel the order and I will resell your piece. Not that I wanna break your heart! But we really hope a) this won’t happen and b) if it does you will be able to hang on in there a short time longer.
‘Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.’ Arundhati Roy