About
Trained tailor & BA Fashion Design Fahmoda, Academy for Fashion & Design, Hanover, 2010
Cut directorate, AMD - Academy for Fashion & Design, Hamburg, 2011
Study of Textile Design, Academy of Art Kassel, Prof. Ayzit Bostan, 2013
Establishment of the Eco Fashion Label in 2015
Sophia Schneider-Esleben - SSE - Slow • Smart • Eco
How art becomes fashion
SSE revives watercolors and drawings by her grandfather. Paul Schneider-Esleben, one of the most prominent architects of the post-war period, provides the motifs for SSE's fabric designs with his watercolors and sketches. SSE also transforms the designs of artist Emil Schult, the "Eye of Kraftwerk," into artworks for her label. The aim is to graphically adapt the works to the body in their formal expression.
As a fashion designer and cut director, SSE has mastered the composition of body measurements and proportions as well as from materials, colors and patterns. Each design is digitally sized differently for its effect. The selection of artwork always corresponds to a new mix of moods and color trends, whether large- or small-scale, linear or disintegrating, light, dark or vibrant.
Fashion Week Berlin, Neonyt Fashion Show 1.19.
Helen dress + Paul Snow shirt
Ink drawing by Paul Schneider-Esleben
In her digital sketchbook, SSE experiments with the proportions of the digitized artworks. In this way, SSE transforms art into fashion. The next step is to digitally create the final repeats, the repeated patterns for the fabric print. Here, SSE determines how large the pattern will ultimately be for fabric printing, how brilliant the colors will be, and whether the works need to be graphically adjusted. If all parameters are right, the files are printed on organic cotton in Germany or on bamboo in Poland using the inkjet digital reactive process. With drinkable organic inks, color and light fast, without water consumption.
Paul Schneider-Esleben
Fashion designer Sophia Schneider-Esleben
in dress Helena Snow
Slow fashion:
The organic cotton is woven, knitted and printed in Chemnitz according to SSE's designs without water consumption with drinkable organic inks, as they are water-based. All components like fabrics, yarns, buttons, zippers and labels are organic: single variety, vegan and GOTS certified, made in Germany. Sewing is done in Lithuania, at 100% Womenpower. Her collection is compostable, as SSE does not use synthetics. A garment travels from the cotton field in Turkey to the customer only 3,500 km, instead of 65,000 km as in conventional fashion, so the designer already reduces CO2 emissions during transport, due to their regional production in the EU, with no air freight.
Fashion Week Berlin, Neonyt Fashion Show 7.19.
Culotte Ann "Mare e Monti Blue", Watercolor Paul Schneider-Esleben
Schneider-Esleben works according to the C2C principle: Larger offcuts that result from production are upcycled into accessories, while smaller scraps are collected by daycare centers in Lithuania for handicrafts. Their production is transparent, as a QR code is sewn into the label. Customers thus land on her website www.schneider-esleben.com/ who-made-my-clothes, where all details are described in detail: Material, certification, production sites, washing instructions. In her studio, SSE works with green electricity. SSE uses recycled paper for her packaging, some of which is reused several times.
Smart fashion:
Schneider-Eslebens fashion language consists of design, craftsmanship and ecology, clever cuts in purist form, casual and business approved, nonseasonal, ageless and unisex. Eco Fashion is the 2nd skin, can be smart & is made in EU!
Eco fashion:
The share of the world market of sustainable fashion is 2% and that of organic cotton is only 1%, this is what SSE wants to change. Since 2015 she is a "Fashion Revolution" Ambassador in Kassel and speaks at universities, schools and fairs about the abuses of the fashion industry as the third largest polluter including the Rana Plaza collapse in 2012, in which 1,200 exploited seamstresses died.
In 2019, SSE has initiated the FashionRevolutionWalk in Kassel in cooperation with Greenpeace with the local lighthouses of the city to network and promote the fashion places where you can promote and buy sustainable and fair fashion.
Watercolor "Mimosa" & "Mohn", PSE, Collection Homage 4, Model Susanna Goonawardana
Emil Schult, 2021
Collection "Homage 5" - TEE Collection
Cooperations & Projects
Safety, safety baby
Three-layer masks made from residual materials 3.20
Stay for Ukraine
PSE Taube
TrendForecaster
Lectures on EcoFashionTrends since 2015
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B2B trade fairs: Music Fabric Start, Heimtextil, Neonyt
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Trade fairs B2C: Greenpeace, Designers Open, Heldenmarkt
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Universities: TU Darmstadt, University of Applied Sciences Niedrrhein, Sigmaringen Fashion School
Exhibitions
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100 years of Bauhaus, exhibition as part of the Hamburg Architecture Summer with the collection "Hommage 1", EcoConceptStore "Werte Freunde", Hamburg 8.19
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Exhibition, Ludwig Beck Munich with collection "Hommage 5" 10.21
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Exhibition, The Pool Düsseldorf with collection "Hommage 1 + 5" 6.22
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Exhibition, Galeria Kassel with collection "Hommage 6" 7.22
Who made my clothes
As a OneWomenShow of her EcoLabel, SSE has a long chain of producers and suppliers close to her heart. She is grateful for the high quality they provide her, along with friendship and reliability. In the labels of her collections you will find her QR code, which will lead you to her page. As a Fashion Revolution Ambassador, Schneider-Esleben fights for fair fashion with transparency and responsibility in fashion.
Textile printing shop, Chemnitz since 2017
Drinkable organic dyes since water-based, fabrics are knitted & printed on site on organic cotton, linen & silk.
Fabric printing, Poland since 2020
Woven, printed, knitted on site, organic bamboo
Sewing factory, Lithuania since 2019
Digitalization of prototypes into cuts & production of collections, 100% WomenPower, Made in EU
Label manufacturer, Dresden since 2017
Woven & printed on site with QR code.
"Who made my clothes?"
Button manufactory, Frankfurt since 2018
Stone nut buttons with laser cut logo,
Women led
Watercolor lover
Berlinale 1.20
"Consume small but fine, take responsibility for what you wear!"