Ýr Jóhannsdóttir is a textile designer from Iceland, based in Berlin and Reykjavík who works under the name Ýrúrarí. Her pieces are mostly textile-based, exploring the line between costume and casual wear. “My work is often about humour, colours and playfulness,” she has said. In recent years she has been increasingly concerned with sustainability, an issue reflected in her use of second-hand tangled sweaters given a new look through handmade decorations and mending.

In 2020 Ýrúrarí’s first line of upcycled sweaters, Sweater Sauce, was nominated for the Icelandic design awards. The Sweater Sauce project evolved into ‘visible mending’ workshops in various European cities in which participants personalise items of clothing and play creatively with mending techniques on their own knits.

Ýr’s work has been exhibited in Iceland, the US and Finland, and is included in the collections of Textiel Museum in the Netherlands, Hamburg’s Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe and the Museum of International Folk Art in New Mexico.

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