Knitwear designer branches out at local farmers markets

As a child growing up in Germany after World War II, Jutta Zuloaga began knitting in school.

"There were no computers," she said. "There was no television, so we learned crafts when we were little. We were in kindergarten from the time we were 3 until we went to school at 7 ... They start you off with crocheting. I've been knitting since I was 6. We made socks, which we all hated, because it (required) using five needles to do the turn at the heel."

As a child, she progressed quickly to making sweaters and loved it. Today, she knits outfits that sell online at exquisiteknits.etsy.com and at high-end boutiques, as well as farmers markets. She also works with private clients out of her home studio in downtown Las Vegas.

A commissioned seamless outfit might cost a few hundred dollars, but Zuloaga sells items at her farmers market booth for far less. Her fashion scarves, for example, start at $25. Zuloaga and her colorful booth can be found from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays at the fresh52 Farmers & Artisan Market at Tivioli Village, 302 S. Rampart Blvd., and from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays at the market at Sansone Park Place, 9480 S. Eastern Ave.

Holiday shoppers take note: The fresh52 farmers market plans to be on hiatus from Dec. 21 to Jan. 6 and resume the weekend of Jan. 11.

Vicki Gooss was checking out the different booths at Tivoli Village Nov. 3. "I think it blends in with all the other artistic type things here," she said of Zuloaga's booth. "It adds a nice element."

After graduating from high school, Zuloaga took a receptionist job while she studied for her degree as a bilingual secretary. It was a career she chose with little enthusiasm.

"I knew when I was little that I wanted to become a fashion designer - anything in fashion, a tailor, anything," she said. "But America had started mass manufacturing, and before my mother had had a tailor. Tailors were starving. ... My parents refused to let me go into (an industry) where they thought there was no future."

All her free time - commuting on the train, riding the bus, at home each night - was spent knitting new designs. She and her friends had to drive about an hour to buy yarn, so Zuloaga opened a tiny yarn store, about 300 square feet. She ran it with some girlfriends so she could keep her part-time job, just in case the store didn't work out.

But it did work out, and within two years, Zuloaga relocated to a larger space and added another component: selling knitting machines that were just coming to market. The machines were noisy, big and not as sophisticated as today's, and she did not hang up her knitting needles.

"What I could do by hand, the machines could not," she said.

Zuloaga began giving lessons at the store and was approached with a new proposition by one of her suppliers, Missoni, a major yarn company. It asked her to write instructions for its publication.

Then one day in 1983, a woman named Giselle who frequented her shop urged Zuloaga to visit her in San Diego. Bring your designs, she said Giselle told her, there are people you need to meet; I can hook you up.

"For six months, she was on my case, and I went, 'OK, I'll come to America,' " she said.

Zuloaga arrived with three suitcases full of her handiwork. True to her word, Giselle introduced her to high-end shop owners who bought the nearly three dozen items she'd brought from Germany. Soon, she was crisscrossing the world, selling more pieces.

Missoni was buying an American company in California and sent her there to come up with styles to promote the product. She met with the American department heads.

"They went, 'OK, just go in the warehouse, pick any yarn you want,' " she said. "It was the dream job of a designer."

She moved to America. Missoni had her designing for the American market. On her own time, she created a knitwear fashion line, Exquisite Knits, based in Oregon, where she had 20 employees. By 1989, her representative got her into 60 high-end boutiques.

After her first fashion show, a woman bought one of Zuloaga's pieces. While writing up the receipt, Zuloaga asked the woman for her name.

"Lilo Miller," the woman said.

She was the fashion director for Saks Fifth Avenue, and soon the store was carrying the Exquisite Knits line. Then Nordstrom discovered her and signed her.

Boutiques scattered throughout the western United States kept Zuloaga just as busy as the major department stores. Twenty were in San Francisco and were wiped out in 1989's Loma Prieta earthquake. The Saks Fifth Avenue store in San Francisco was destroyed.

Zuloaga took stock. She was burned out, and it was time to move on. Life led her to Santa Fe, N.M., and she opened a store with a studio component for custom designs. But New Mexico couldn't hold her interest.

She "gypsied around" and discovered the French Quarter in New Orleans and moved there. It had an artisans cooperative, which she joined. It renewed her purpose and spurred her creativity, she said.

Now in Las Vegas since 2008, Zuloaga's designs sell in high-end boutiques inside Strip properties. She opted for the fresh52 venue for the chance to get out and meet people and take life a little less seriously.

She said that by staying true to her love of knitting and designing, it led her to a career she loved.

"You have to tap into the things you can do," she said. "My message to women is to find your talent and find at least three different ways you can use it and start your own business, even if you have to do it on the side. Be good enough that you can teach. Be good enough that you can sell. This you can do until the day you die."

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.