Skip to content

Interview with Sophia Schneider-Esleben

Sophias eco design has a delicate sense for colors, design, craft, style and smart cuts in neoclassical forms. This composition makes her work unique.

Sophia Schneider-Esleben

Design Legend Interview

15 September 2018

I come from a family of designers, musicians and architects, the creativity accompanies me all my life. Fashion has always fascinated me, so I studied fashion design, made a tailor's apprenticeship at Fahmoda, Akademie für Mode & Design, Hannover, and completed a further education to the cut managaress, at AMD, Akademie für Mode & Design, Hamburg, 2014 I founded my Eco Label, Sophia Schneider-Esleben, Kassel.

I am fascinated by the process of development, from the idea to the prototype to the finished product and the satisfied customer. To hold something in my hand, that first was an idea.

Neither nore, I believe you can´t either get become or get forced to be a designer. Either you are a designer or not.

I really love to design eco kid´s fashion in combination with womens wear. I hope to do this my whole life!
I create a fashionable „Mini-me-world“ in a family image, which means I dress children and adults in a related combination of „parent-sibling-concept“.
For the future I plan also to design fashion for boys & men.

I really dislike the word „Young Designer“ this means for me the designer has no experience. Every designer is different and that´s wonderful, every designer needs to go his way, there is no better way.

A good designer has good visions with a short term commercial mind, a great designer combines commercial & cultural thinking in a holistic way, with quality & innovation.

For me good design is fair trade produced, material & coulors are eco certified, GOTS & OekoTex 100, exciting prints & Patterns, interesting cuts. I think there is no rule of good design. But I think when it catches up to lifestyle of the Zeitgeist, and the attention to the costumer to always desiring the design in his everyday life.
Good Design establishes into classic.

Sustainability is one of the most important values in fashion design.
I wish the customer invests into the designer and not into the design. This support is more important and will last longer.

I would like to work together with Vivienne Westwood and Karl Lagerfeld. A cooperation in kids fashion would be fun.

At first my dream is to establish my label, after that I’m open to everything!

While there is no golden rule, everybody would have the same success. I think it’s the passion and love to be different and innovative.

There is no one more to get inspired by Karl Lagerfeld or Vivienne Westwood. For now there is nearly no kids label I feel in love to but mine …

In fashion I love the connection between fun, intelligence and politics as by Vivienne Westwood.

My Bestsellers are my collection of illustrated animals finished with my special watercolor technic, which are printed on organic BabyBodies & T-Shirts as well on postcards & posters. Here people discovered my experimental illustration talent …

Try and error.

I would have become a seeker out of a dissatisfaction. Well, maybe an illustrator ..?

Design is art, lifestyle, a way to communicate, functionality, fun, everyday life. A good composition of material, construction & vision.
Everything is design, which is not grown naturally.

My family, friends, fans & customers.

I can visualize designs before it is made.

For me there are no obstacles, only tasks on which I grow.

i like to tell fairytales. You should incent a story.

Keep up to date via Newsletter, Website and Facebook!

To have a real loyal fanbase, regular costumers a life long and to promote Eco consume.

Innovation and quality.

Fashion is the second largest environmental pollution, we must start to produce sustainable, fair and local. To recycle and to avoid textile waste. To communicate to customers to live & consume Eco. There is no time to waste!

I am very excited about a children's book project which my boyfriend and we would probably create it together. He the writer and me the illustrator.

I’m satisfied by all of my projects. I would never release a design, if I’m not happy with.

I hope for a major political change and laws in sustainability, my heart hurts by all the pollution.

3D printing is a great and positive change and chance to make awesome new and sustainable products!

I don’t need more than one day and a sleepless night to imagine the new collection. Very quick after designing I start to create prototypes by draping on a tailoring doll.
I don’t think to long about a design I finish very quick. Either there is a result after a day or not. Love it, change it or leave it.

I don’t need more than one day and a sleepless night to imagine the new collection. Very quick after designing I start Depends on the project, but most by imagination & drawing.

Consume small and fine! Carry responsibility for what you wear !

This goes hand in hand. It is also a social and political aspect that incorporates. This also determines what the society needs to develop accordingly.

I love all natural and classic vegan fabrics like cotton, linen and bamboo. I always have my eyes on new concepts like outdoor fabrics made of recycled plastic bottles or new vegan fabrics made from ananas or mushrooms.

My pencil, sketchbook, watercolors, all Adobe programs, my tailoring doll, sewing machine and the internet.

All most important! These are the tributes of a good design.

When do I get more?

Astonishment and pleasure, I really appreciate when a designer has a god concept and a great idea.

I believe in cooperation, when I have found the perfect match I won´t let go.

I think I am unaffected.

I like to read biographies and interviews of great designer and people, I think its always nice to know how, how others have gone their way.

I always focus on what I do, like a meditation.

I would love to work with Coco Chanel as real inspirational revolutionary.

I really feel excited and honored! Its unbelievable to win silver at the first try!

I love pink and copper, I regenerate in nature, I enjoy the taste of strawberries, in summer my balcony is full of them. I like all seasons the same. I like the design of Scotch and Soda, Cop Copine and Adidas.

Very early I go running for an hour every day in the central park in front of my studio to plan my day. Thats a great kick start. After that I enjoy my cappuccino and self-made muesli on my balcony. Charged for the day I start drawing for an hour. After that I work on my daily projects.

As a very young child I was almost only drawing in my flow

I live absolutely in presence, its even hard to say whats going on in 5 years.

Please consume lasting, support local suppliers.

Designer Interview

26 April 2017

My family exists of four generations from well-known freelance architects, musicians and designers. These influences have inspired and guided me from the beginning.
Being surrounded of interesting, successful people gave me the inspiration and the courage to become a designer. After a long journey to graphic design studios, goldsmiths and photographers, I met fashion at age seventeen by an internship with Maria Mahlmann, fashion designer, Hamburg, who showed me the world of the draping and I have fallen in love with it. I identify myself with design, its beauty and chances, to express my talents to change the world …

I love family, fashion and sustainability, so I combined these interests and started my own Eco Fashion & Fairtrade abel for "Mommy and Me". This is my tribute to our planet.
I only use organic fabrics and I obtain green energy. My collections are produced in small series and on demand in my studio in Kassel.

My Design is a composition of classical beauty, poetry and commitment for slow fashion.

I love dresses! There are so many ways to express and create a mood. There is no better way to look fabulous!

There is a variety of designs that I like. I love Art Nouveau and Bauhaus. I feel home with Provençal Details, Architecture & TechnoStyle. I love the mix of all. My fashion idols are Coco Chanel and Vivienne Westwood.

At my internship by Anja Gockel, Mainz, 2011 I designed a knitted pullover for her winter collection "Signs".

I love all natural, sustainable and vegan fabrics like cotton, linen and bamboo. I always have my eyes on new concepts, for instance like outdoor fabrics made of recycled plastic bottles or new vegan fabrics made from ananas or mushrooms.

When I start new projects. I always feel the high energy of a new beginning. But there is no day without a creative and new idea!

Fashion is about fun, that´s one important issue, that sets the design. Of course as an eco fashion designer the design needs to be timeless, an evergreen. More important, still a hidden aspect is the sustainability. The comfort for a pregnant or breastfeeding woman is also an important aspect, but you will not think my design is specially made for pregnancy.

Love, harmony, freedom, luck, joy, delight, happiness ...

I always feel satisfied. There is nothing better than having a finished product after a long way of creative process and production.

When my costumers are happy.

I am very critical and factual, I always look for colours, shapes, finishing and simplicity.

We all need to design sustainable products! The pollution of fashion industry is enormous, I can´t believe that you can see the trend colour of the next season in the Ganges. Or Indian women who sort textile garbage from the west, think we have a big problem with water scarcity, since washing is more expensive than buying new clothes ..!

In addition to the desire that all fashion labels produce fair & eco. I believe in a decline of black by the fear of islamophoby. In menacing situations fashion has always been extravagant. The first signs today are the pompous sleeves. I am happy about the digitalization of the fashion and hope to have someday an own 3D Printer. Now I am very pleased about the plastic bottled recycled 3D printed Adidas sneakers.

My last presentation was at the design fair „Blickfang“ in Stuttgart, now I'm heading to the Fashion Week, Berlin, this summer, presenting my new collection at Playtime Berlin, Ethical Fashion Show, Berlin and Kleine Fabriek, Amsterdam.

The ease, fantasy and inquiring mind of children inspires me. I get feeded about happiness, inner freedom, nature and culture. Lots of inspirations also come from the interesting conversations, politics, movies, music, art and travelling.

Since fashon is the second skin my design is made of organic fabrics and colors without pesticides produced fair trade. But despite of the normal eco design my design is slow, smart and eco, neoclassical with a romantic flair.

I live in Kassel, known for the international art exhibition Documenta. As a half German and half Italian I connect design and function. Germans only want to have function, I miss the sense and celebration of fashion and beauty. Specially for kids fashion, they only ask for drier function, while in the south of Europe they dress kids like a prince and a princess and celebrate the beauty of fashion. I really love that.

I’m always open and free for cooperations!m I love the beginning of something new.

Companies often tend to stop designers from their creativity, as they only think of profit and sale. Nothing new is created, since only that is produced the customer purchases safely it is a reproduction of bestsellers. The retail store is yawning dull. If a company engages a designer please take over the expertise and the ideas!

I don’t need more than one day and a sleepless night to imagine the new collection. Very quick after designing I start to create prototypes by draping on a tailoring doll.
I don’t think to long about a design I finish very quick. Either there is a result after a day or not. Love it, change it or leave it.

The Art Nouveau Chaiselongue of my Grandgrandmother, Ursula van Diemen, Concertsinger.
The SputnikChair "PSE 58", designed by my Grandfather Paul Schneider-Esleben, Architect, for which he gained also a Silver Award from Triennale di Milano in 1960.
The bookshelf "SH05 Arie" by Arik Levy produced by E15, Frankfurt.
A few side tables, vases, metal pictures and accessories which I brought along at the flea market in France
A barrock armchair I have restored with red velvet & goldapplications.

Very early I go running for an hour every day in the central park in front of my studio to plan my day, thats a great kick start. After that I enjoy my cappuccino and self-made muesli on my balcony. Charged for the day I start drawing for an hour. After that I work on my daily projects.

Never stop dreaming, never despair, believe in you. Good stuff take time. Stay tuned, the planet needs you.

The best thing being a designer is the never ending creativity, to always have the chance to create something new. Holding a self designed product in my hands is awesome!

Love what you do. If you don't feel good about it, leave it.

Imagination and to know how to realize, sell and use the design.

My pencil, sketchbook, watercolors, all Adobe programs, my tailoring doll, sewing machine and the internet.

I work in blocks and projects. There are days I only do one subject.

It depends on the object. It can take one week for design and three months for developing.

From where do I get all the creativity?

At Anja Gockel. There I learned, that I want to work sustainable, and fair-trade, because she doesn't.

Consumers, Retail shops, Families, Mums, young open people, who love good design. Eco committed Clients.

I enjoy every single step creating design, especially drawing, watercolorig & Darling. Because I like working with my eyes and hands.

To establish my eco label more, getting successful in the market, opening my own shop, networking internationally …

A a one woman show, I design and develop all on my own! But I am supported by a huge network of fantastic professionals.

I am very excited about our children's book project which my boyfriend, he as the author and me the illustrator.

schneider-esleben.com sophia@schneider-esleben.com
Email this page to a friend

Good Design Deserves Great Recognition

Nominate Your Work for the A' Design Award.

Nominate