Denise Bayron

Denise Bayron is an Afro Latina designer and pattern maker whose work spans a number of fibre arts including knitting, sewing, crochet and macrame. Based in the USA and working under the brand name 'Bayron Handmade' she's renowned for creating modern designs that are practical, minimal, and most often geometric. With a background in the New York 'fast fashion' industry where she worked as an executive for 15 years, she transitioned to patternmaking as a means of reconciling her love of fashion with a desire to live more sustainably.

Her work has been written about in The New Yorker, the San Francisco Chronicle and Seamwork Magazine and her designs have been published internationally in titles such as Laine Magazine (Finland) and Making (USA).

She's been named 2020's 'Designer of the Year' by Knit Now Magazine (UK), nominated in the last two years' 'Modern Daily Knitting Bracket' and most recently dubbed 'The Afro-Latina DIY Queen Who Will Inspire You to Revamp Your Life' in on BeLatina.com.

Denise hopes to empower the home knitter and sewist with the tools, knowledge, and autonomy to create the handmade wardrobe of their dreams. To encourage them to use the basic infrastructure for a garment then individually customise fibre selection, fit, and colour. As she says 'In the end, each garment is a collaboration between designer and maker, and therefore a piece of handmade art.'

She strives to make the slow fashion industry a more inclusive space through representation and education and travels the world teaching both knitting and sewing. Her patterns are available in PDF format through her website and on her ravelry Pattern Store.