A knitwear product development technician and founder of KIP studio, Barbara Perchinella knows the world of yarns in all its facets, thanks to a professional career built step by step, following a continuous training program structured into targeted courses offered by institutes and some of the industry’s leading players. “Even today,” Barbara explains, “I continue to study and update myself, because for me, training is not a qualification achieved, but a process that has never stopped.” Her evolutionary path is driven by a passion for yarns, born in the presence of a machine.
How and when did your interest in the knitwear sector begin?
What ignited the spark wasn’t, as you might imagine, a yarn, but a machine. I started as a programmer for Shima Seiki machines over 25 years ago, and after years of working in this role, I understood something that has guided me ever since: you can program the perfect stitch, but you need to understand the entire process, starting with the yarn, to achieve an excellent result. From that moment, I began to be interested in fibers, counts, and the actual behavior of the yarn being processed. Knitting fascinated me precisely because it’s the only fabric that is created together with the garment: yarn, structure, and shape come together to create a garment.
An awareness that, in concrete terms, how did it express itself?
I moved along the entire supply chain, never stopping at just one role. After working in machine programming, I delved into pattern making applied to knitting. In short: first I designed the pattern, then I created the outline and the machine program. This allowed me to guide the yarn from shape to stitch.
But you didn’t stop there…
Exactly. I then worked on product development, from the design phase to final inspection. This additional step allowed me to experience all the phases firsthand, experience problems, and find solutions.
A cross-disciplinary approach that allowed you to work with leading figures…
I’ve worked for luxury brands like Zegna, where I stayed for thirteen years, and followed products for Gucci, Tom Ford, Couture, and Agnona, holding product development technical roles. Each step allowed me to see the product from a different perspective.
What professional experience has shaped you the most, and why?
It wasn’t a single role, but rather the knowledge of multiple roles. This diversity allowed me to focus not only on the machine, but on the entire process, from the sketch to the finished garment. This transition opened my eyes to the importance of a deeper understanding of the yarn, its characteristics, and its limitations, in order to best exploit it.
What has this diversity of skills taught you?
I’ve come to understand that the prototype is a hypothesis, not a guarantee, and that quality isn’t an aesthetic result but a system of control built from the ground up. The real difference lies in the constant pursuit of quality, precision, and experimentation.
How would you describe the world of yarns today?
As a world rich in technical possibilities, yet often little known. It’s difficult to understand what lies beyond our work, especially when we lack the knowledge to use raw materials properly: we choose a yarn for its aesthetics or for its trend, without considering its compatibility with the gauge, the stitch, the actual fit of the garment, or the weight that the garment will have.
What determines this disconnect?
A distance between those who imagine the product and those who must make it. Yarn is never a detail: it’s the first technical decision for a garment, and it influences all the others.
How has the industry changed compared to the past, and in what direction is it going?
What has changed, above all, is the interest. In the past, there was a desire to learn a manual role, to build expertise in “know-how.” Today, the greatest interest is technological; we’re willing to learn AI but not to recognize a knitting stitch or understand the characteristics of a yarn. In this rush to technology, part of the technical knowledge that held the supply chain together is being lost. Furthermore, there’s no doubt that the knitwear sector is undergoing a period of great transformation: the natural generational turnover forces us to preserve and pass on the knowledge of those with years of experience in the field.
What do you think is the real challenge today?
Ensuring that our valuable know-how isn’t just an individual experience, but becomes ongoing training and a corporate method. When technique is shared and structured into clear processes, the gap between style and production is reduced, avoiding costly corrections to prototypes. Investing in training means precisely this: transforming artisanal knowledge into an organized heritage, ready to guide new talent and ensure the continuity of the sector’s value.
What are the strengths of the Italian sector?
We know how to manage complexity, hybrid garments, and difficult processes that aren’t tackled elsewhere, and at the same time, we are creative at every stage of the process. The risk, however, is taking it for granted: this expertise must be protected, transmitted, and made explicit, otherwise we’ll lose it and be impossible to be competitive.
What does the future hold for the sector?
It’s difficult to answer in such a complex time, but I’m convinced of one thing: the future will lie with those who are competent across the board, those who know how to keep an eye on the product, from material selection to production control. I’ve heard it said too many times, “the customer doesn’t understand.” I disagree: the customer who didn’t understand yesterday now informs himself because he has the tools to do so.
Your future, however, speaks the language of KIP Studio. A project that also involves Stefano Gelosini, a consultant for companies operating across the knitwear sector, from spinning mills to design, production, and logistics. How did you meet?
We met at In.Co. in Verrone, in 2012. At the time, I was programming Shima Seiki machines and had completed the two-year women’s pattern-making course at the Istituto Secoli. I was working on a specific idea: expanding CAD design, from paper patterns to programming and prototype weaving. A position opened within the company as a product development technician for the Agnona line, and from there, a career path began that hasn’t stopped.
How did the idea to collaborate come about?
From a shared vision: we strongly believe in the need for technical training within the supply chain, and KIP Platform was created for this. When I proposed the project to Stefano, he immediately understood the value of combining our experiences.
Can you tell us a little more about KIP Platform?
The name comes from KIP – Knitwear Italian Product – and captures exactly what we want to champion: Italian knitwear and the knowledge behind it. It’s a technical information platform that collects and disseminates the know-how derived from our direct experience in the supply chain. We don’t train roles: there are already schools and organizations for that that we could support and complement.
What’s its advantage?
We gather experience, practice, and proven knowledge in the field, and transform it into a language accessible to different roles. Each topic stems from a real problem, and we approach it cross-disciplinary, analyzing it from multiple perspectives.
Who are you speaking to?
Anyone who works in this field: from business owners to technicians, from stylists to programmers, from buyers to e-commerce professionals. It’s important to emphasize that the courses are designed and built with respect for people’s time: working people often have little time, and being able to follow a recorded video course whenever they want allows anyone to do so, without time constraints.
How is each course structured?
Each session includes individual video calls, which allow us to delve deeper into a topic, review a specific module in detail, discuss real-world problems, and much more. But we don’t stop at the video course; the vision for the project is to move to in-person training.
What response have you received from the market?
The response is very encouraging. I started posting on my LinkedIn profile in October, and in just a few months, more than 1,200 people began following me, commenting, and sharing the content. Collaboration proposals and job offers have also arrived from abroad. The most important signal, however, is not the number but the quality of conversations. People want to understand, ask concrete questions, and bring their real problems. This means there’s a real need for technical knowledge in this sector.
From a futuristic perspective, what possible upgrades of the project do you imagine?
I imagine KIP Platform as a stable reference point.
In concrete terms, this is explicit both in online courses to reach every professional figure who needs them, and in face-to-face courses at companies and institutes. Specifically, I am also thinking of proceduralization paths to help companies transform people’s experience into internal corporate know-how that can become a guideline. But I am also thinking of continuous editorial formats, such as the newsletter, and a technical podcast. The goal is to build a place where those who work in knitwear find concrete answers, from design to industrialization up to the finished garment. I would like it to become the shared technical memory of a sector that risks forgetting too quickly.
How did you come into contact with Tollegno 1900?
Tollegno 1900 contacted me directly via LinkedIn after the first months of content and their proposal was immediately one of the most interesting because it was in perfect harmony with the spirit of KIP Platform: enhancing the quality and technical knowledge of the Italian product. From that first contact was born the dialogue that today leads us to a collaborative effort with the column “The Word to the Experts” which will officially start in October.