The Knitting Factory.

Byline: VENESSA LAU

The Knitting Factory

Marcia Patmos takes WWD on a tour of the New Jersey-based Shima Seiki factory, her latest knit obsession.

Step off the sixth floor at Barneys New York and there's a clutch of mannequins at the ready, all dressed in the latest fall merch Zero + Maria Cornejo, Stella McCartney and Erdem. Another model is dressed in a pair of leather shorts topped with a gauzy purple pullover by M. Patmos, Marcia Patmos' fledgling solo label she started after splitting with Tina Lutz last year. The sweater is an intricate collage of knitted and patchwork textures ribbing, pointelle panels without a seam in sight. WWD was on the scene when that sweater, or one of the 81 produced like it, spilled out of a knitting machine like lasagne pressed from a pasta maker. The entire production time: about 45 minutes.

Few designers will broadcast the name of their factories and fewer still will offer to take you on a personal tour. But that's precisely what Patmos did on a midsummer morning at the …