Zoë May is a fashion designer based in Naarm / Melbourne. Her playful, small-batch knitwear label centres around the art of slow making. Each collection is designed for trans-seasonal wear, celebrating luxurious textures and saturated colours that evoke joy.

Each garment is carefully created by hand in her Brunswick studio using vintage domestic knitting machines and hand knit/crochet techniques. Pieces are produced in limited quantities and designed to be treasured.

Making Practice

Knitwear is unique in its potential for zero waste design. Our garments are fully-fashioned knits - meaning that each piece is knit to shape, leaving no offcuts. All scraps, swatches, failed samples and even other salvaged knits can be pulled back and reknit - given a new life.

Our studio uses a combination of Australian merino wool, end-of-mill wools, linens and rayons, and other salvaged yarns to create joyful, heirloom quality pieces. All packaging materials are plastic-free, recyclable/compostable.

Bucket Hat (Greys) - heyzoemay

Values & Sourcing

Zoë is heavily influenced by the Fibershed movement - a term coined by Rebecca Burgess in 2011, describing the geographic region from which come all of the resources to make an article of clothing.

A core value for this label is to source materials and makers within the smallest possible radius, contributing back into our valuable local network of farmers and artisans. 

Where this is not possible, imported materials will always be certified organic, biodegradable and ethically produced, so that they will cause no further harm by entering our fibershed.

If you'd like to be a part of our little world in some way, please get in touch at hello@heyzoemay.com .

stockists

AU

Ode Collective

340-342 Johnston St, Abbotsford VIC 3067

NZ

Bizarre Bazaar

100 Tory Street, Te Aro, Wellington 6011, New Zealand

sampling & consulting

Zoë graduated with First Class Honours from her BA in Fashion Design at RMIT in 2021. Since then, she has worked in both knit and woven garment production and sample development with a number of local ethical designers alongside her own label. She now offers small-batch production, consulting & sampling for emerging & existing designers and labels in the ethical fashion space.

This includes complex & experimental knit sampling for design students.

Availability is limited depending on time of year, so please get in touch early :)