Guðrun & Guðrun

Faroe Islanders have worn thick skipper sweaters with a star pattern for ages, but millions of people around the world saw them in the Danish series The Killing, where detective Sarah Lund wore one through all three seasons. That model is called Vón, which means "hope" in Faroese, and the designer Gudrun Ludvig came up with it.

From the traditional pattern she kept only the stars and two colours, black and white, and she narrowed the sweater to fit a woman's figure. That model is still sold in the Faroes in the flagship shop of the brand Guðrun & Guðrun, which Gudrun Ludvig founded together with her namesake Gudrun Rógvadóttir in 2000.

In time Vón grew a whole family around it, a line of pieces in pure Faroese wool, undyed and untreated. The colour of these sweaters and waistcoats comes from the sheep and nothing else: white, grey, brown, black or something in between. Thick skipper sweaters are good to wear in Faroese weather, where they really do keep out the wind that cuts through you. If Faroese wool feels too rough for you, the brand has the same models in Peruvian alpaca, and they feel completely different.

For its everyday basics the label knits with merino, the fine soft wool of the sheep of that name, and with mohair, which comes from angora goats. And in the shop you can see for yourself the striking contrast between a skipper sweater you could never wear out and light lacy things, thin and airy as a cloud.

Of course, it doesn't stop at sweaters: there are cardigans and dresses, skirts and trousers, tops and waistcoats, scarves and hats. The yarn for the traditional collections comes from a family spinning mill on the island of Eysturoy, the only mill in the archipelago still working. And the pieces in lighter, softer wool are knitted by hand by women in Jordan and Peru. Both of those workshops abroad started as women's employment projects, by the way.

You won't have to search long for the Guðrun & Guðrun shop in Tórshavn. On the town's only pedestrian street it's easy to spot by the crowd of tourists who get brought over from the cruise ferries. If you'd rather not blend into that crowd, wait out the rush in the boutique of the stylish brand EINSTAKT (it's almost opposite) or a bit further up the street, in Ullvøruhúsið, where two local designers offer interesting knitted things under the brands Steinum and Shisa Brand.