Like all good creative projects, HADES began as an accident. Sisters Cassie and Isabel Holland’s Birmingham-based knitwear brand sewed its first seam when Cassie started designing band-inspired knits for friends. Sharing the designs to Instagram resulted in almost instant virality – and this was back before the platform became a landfill site for adverts, and still allowed for organic discovery.
“We’ve always loved fashion and have always been interested but we don’t come from classically trained backgrounds,” they share. “Cassie read Viv Albertine’s book Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys, and was encouraged by the can-do DIY punk ethic described in the book; the idea that even if you’re not classically trained, you can still have something to offer.”
The music-inspired knits spiralled into screen-print cardigans, slogan jumpers and photo-patterned pieces, celebrating music icons from Blondie and David Bowie to The Cure, Iggy Pop and Joy Division. There’s something slightly obsessive about HADES’ designs; garments that treat knitwear less as basics and more as vessels for memory, heartbreak, fandom and cultural fixation.
Their intricate and playful knits quickly caught the attention of Brie Larson, Emma Corrin, Paul Mescal and Tilda Swinton. So much so, in fact, that in 2024, the duo partnered with the Scottish actress to create a co-designed capsule collection including a scissor-print knit co-ord, a best-selling hand-print cardigan, and even a slip skirt featuring Swinton’s portrait from The Last King of England.
This April, HADES launched its second collection with Swinton, this time including the phrase “Make Friends With Chaos” across turquoise v-neck sweaters and acid green frilled handbags, as well as a dress that features Swinton’s famed poem ‘Notes For Radical Living’, in her own handwriting.
Now, the duo are back with a new SS26 launch, “I love you”, and tell all about collaborating with personal heroes, investing in local manufacturing, and finding inspiration in unexpected places.
Who or what has inspired your upcoming/most recent collection?
Our Spring/Summer 26 core collection, “I love you*”, was inspired by the delusions we tell ourselves in love. The Paris Review article, We Need the Eggs: On Annie Hall, Love, and Delusion, By Sheila Heti, served as a key influence and is a light hearted commentary on this theme, we highly recommend reading it!
It’s hard to pinpoint how the collection fully develops; it’s a mixture of ideas you’ve sat with for years, things you know will perform well commercially and things you’re excited to try and develop. I read the article years ago, but the endless interpretations of love stayed with me. Over time, those thoughts slowly took shape within the collection.
The collection features The Iron Burn skirt with a singular scorch mark across the back was the last piece in the collection to be designed and a reflection on domestic bliss; we loved the passive-aggressive gesture of destroying a beloved piece of clothing with an iron burn. The Armour knit, which is a reimagined suit of armour, in the form of a soft silver grey lambswool jumper; a visual metaphor of what our defenses in love can often feel like. A digitally printed cardigan, The Kiss, is inspired by Brâncuși’s sculpture of the same name, showing us that intimacy is both union and fracture, two figures fused together, yet still marked by the distinct lines of selfhood. The Delusion skirt, complete with both sheer and covered panels. Completing the collection is a v-neck cardigan, The 138 Cardigan, baby blue merino wool cardigan is finished with ornate buttons including cupid, hearts and flowers, amongst others.
Our collections are a mixture of ideas you’ve sat with for years, things you know will perform well commercially and things you’re excited to try and develop.
What’s one piece you’ve made that you feel summarises your label, and why?
Probably one of our earliest skirts, The Severance Skirt from a collection exploring the power of female curiosity, drawing heavily from the story of Bluebeard. The skirt is screen-printed with three distinct scenes: a faceless Greek statue pulling at her own hair, a woman staring longingly out over a cityscape, and the view from behind a steering wheel.
Printed in vivid orange and royal blue, each image carries the subtle imperfections of the maker’s hand – details that, to us, make the garment feel complete. It captures something central to our work, femininity not in the traditional floral sense, but in a way that feels more honest to the lived experience.
Can you describe your design process?
In practice it’s all quite unsystematic – covers are tacked in a folder on our Mac, alongside colour swatches, extracts from memoirs and novels, quotes, photographs and e-mails – we reference these throughout the design process, eventually creating a singular theme or storyline.
The best ideas come when you’re not searching for them; at a museum, seeing something from a different angle, reading a good book, smoking a cigarette. They’re the ones that are instinctive and usually resonate the best with people. But often the work happens behind a computer screen, digging through archival imagery. Or searching through our own wardrobes, and the pieces we’ve worn consistently for years.
The process is hugely mood-dependent; some days feel torturous, other days it’s a joy to be able to design. What never changes is the consistency and length of the process; from first draft to final piece, I can go from loving to hating a design twenty times over.
The best ideas come when you’re not searching for them; at a museum, seeing something from a different angle, reading a good book, smoking a cigarette.
How would you like to see your work develop and how are you approaching this?
We’d love to continue exploring more sculptural and unconventional silhouettes, whether through knitwear itself or through embellishment and construction. Over the years, we’ve built strong local relationships in Birmingham that have allowed us to experiment with new techniques in a very hands-on way. Our most recent knits, for example, are screen-printed entirely by hand by two incredibly talented women who worked with us to test countless binders, inks, and fabric treatments to make printing on knitwear possible, something still relatively unconventional within the medium.
Our Carrington buttons were developed with an amazing local 3D artist who was equally open and curious about transforming digital 3D files into wearable objects.
What makes these collaborations so special is their proximity; they are within a five-mile radius of our studio, which means ideas can develop organically through constant conversation, testing, and being together in person.
Our most recent knits are screen-printed entirely by hand by two incredibly talented women who worked with us to test countless binders, inks, and fabric treatments to make printing on knitwear possible, something still relatively unconventional within the medium.
What changes would you like to see in fashion, if any, and how is your brand contributing to this?
We’d like to see the fashion industry become less governed by fixed ideas of “taste” and who gets to define it. Historically, tastemakers within fashion and media came from the same privileged class backgrounds. In Britain especially, such a disproportionate number of creatives emerged from the same social circles, which inevitably created a more homogenised and culturally impoverished industry but that is now changing, which is so refreshing.
Our designs don’t react to the idea of ‘taste’, we try to resist it. We design from instinct and produce in small volumes, so when we want to release a design that we suspect isn’t necessarily commercial, we are able to do so. Whilst we need to achieve a certain amount of commercial success to make HADES viable, our priority is always creative freedom. Also, we simply don’t come from that background.
What’s one piece of advice you would tell other emerging designers getting started in the fashion industry right now?
That there’s so much you can do yourself. We’re often quoted astronomical figures for things that can feel completely out of reach. Sometimes those costs reflect a real skill or a specific creative expertise, but often, if you have a clear vision and are willing to let go of perfection, you can create something far more creative yourself.
Sometimes having no budget can actually become your strength. It forces instinct, experimentation, and a kind of resourcefulness that can’t really be taught.
We’d like to see the fashion industry become less governed by fixed ideas of “taste” and who gets to define it.
What song/album/artist/podcast are you blasting on repeat while you’re working in your studio/space?
Atsuki Kimura & the Every Outfit podcast.
Who IRL would you love to see wearing your designs?
John Waters!
What’s been the most exciting moment so far since launching your label?
We have a very exciting campaign coming out this August to celebrate HADES’ tenth birthday. It’s been shot by a celebrated British artist whose work we’ve admired for a long time. We haven’t actually seen the final images yet, so perhaps I’m jinxing it by speaking too soon, but we hope the campaign feels like a celebration of creativity and HADES itself.
It is telling of my answer, and the fact the moment hasn’t happened, that my expectations do tend to be slightly more romantic than reality!
You can shop HADES x Tilda Swinton & HADES SS26 collections now.
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