Schlaepfer’s Century of Fabrics

ST. GALLEN, Switzerland — Amid the cobblestone streets of this quiet town, nestled in a pastoral valley surrounded by sheep-flecked hills, is a treasure trove of high-fashion history.

In a modest building on the edge of town, down three flights of stairs, are the archives of the venerable mill of Jakob Schlaepfer, documenting much of its last 40 years. Inside hang 60,000 swatches of fabrics: rich embroideries, shimmering sequins, delicately worked raffia and resplendent prints. Many have been the creative starting point for some of the greatest dresses of modern times.

“I know every one by heart,” said Martin Leuthold, 52, Schlaepfer’s artistic director, adding that the firm only started keeping archives in 1960, just before it began catering to the couture in 1964.

Reaching for a breathtaking embroidered lace, he said, “Chanel used this design in 1968.” He gestured to delicate flower embroidery and smiled, “Ungaro.” He grabbed a frothy laser-cut tulle: “Does this look familiar? It’s John Galliano for Christian Dior.”

One of Switzerland’s top makers of high-end novelty couture fabrics, Schlaepfer, which has supplied just about every postwar designer who’s mattered — from Christian Lacroix and Karl Lagerfeld to Hubert de Givenchy and Alexander McQueen — is marking its 100th anniversary this summer.

“They’re the most creative company in [their specialty],” Lagerfeld said. “They do incredible things, [they] have great ideas — always have, because I remember their work from my early days.”

Givenchy said, “They are so capable and creative. I realized many models thanks to [Schlaepfer]. They brought real renewal with very modern and interesting creations.”

But as Schlaepfer contemplated its centennial with a retrospective book launch last week, and the inauguration of an exhibit of its fabrics and the history of St. Gallen textiles at the national Swiss Museum in Zurich, it is also girding for challenges ahead.

Recent years have been choppy for Europe’s luxury textile firms. Numerous mills have been forced to close, downsize or relocate into cheaper labor zones as they face fierce low-cost competition from Asia and Eastern European countries.

Mills like Schlaepfer, whose identity is strongly associated with high fashion, also have had to endure the dwindling ranks of Paris couture. This year alone, longtime Schlaepfer client Emanuel Ungaro hung up his scissors, Hanae Mori retired, Versace suspended its couture operations and Givenchy downsized its show as it searches for a new designer.

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Switzerland’s mills haven’t been spared. Two years ago, one of the country’s greatest couture suppliers, Abraham, which had catered to the likes of Dior, Valentino, Lacroix, Bill Blass and Yves Saint Laurent, declared insolvency.

Yet Schlaepfer, Leuthold said, is in fine fettle, and he paints an upbeat, if cautious, picture for the future.

“There will always be a place for the highest-quality fabrics that we produce,” he said. “The high end of fashion may go elsewhere. It may go by a different name. It may not be called haute couture, but rather luxury ready-to-wear. But there will be a place for the top of the top.

“Recently, we’ve even seen couture activity apart from Paris. We’re doing more business with small couture ateliers in England. The British still have events to dress up for, and there are Lebanese couturiers who are doing quite well, such as Elie Saab.”

Leuthold is in charge of ensuring that Schlaepfer remains pertinent and on the cutting edge of fabric innovation. This, he said, is the key to perpetuating the Schlaepfer legacy into the next hundred years.

“We have always had a free spirit at Schlaepfer,” he said, pointing to some wild creations from the Seventies, such as fabric embroidered with flaming red lips (Courrèges) or a balloon-embroidered confection.

“We’ve always been able to experiment and do what we feel is right for the fashion moment,” Leuthold said. “We have to continue to do that today, to be creative and perceptive, to be good and sell.”

Jakob Schlaepfer was founded here in 1904 at the height of fashion’s vogue for linen and cotton eyelet embroidery, or broderie anglaise. This was the age of Europe’s chicest congregating in Paris at Longchamps and the Bois de Boulogne in their embroidered finery. Much of it came from St. Gallen.

It wasn’t the first time St. Gallen had been influential. The secluded town, founded in 614 by St. Gall, an Irish monk, grew into one of Europe’s most important centers of learning in the Middle Ages. It traces its heritage in textiles to around 800, when monks began planting flax, which flourished in the mountain air, and weaving it into linen. In the 17th century they began cultivating cotton, blending it with the linen. By the 19th century and the eve of the Industrial Revolution, the town had become synonymous with intricate hand embroidery.

The know-how was industrialized by mid-century, and although the hand techniques that had been cultivated over the centuries continued, albeit in reduced form, it was a mixture of tradition and technology that defined St. Gallen’s detailed style.

In some ways, Schlaepfer embodies this balancing act. Many of its couture-level creations are the product of intensive hand labor. For example, just 10 meters of a hand-embroidered fabric ordered last season for Chanel took 17 hours to realize.

Yet Schlaepfer also has been at the forefront of technology. In the Eighties it developed several printing methods, and in the Nineties it was at the forefront of metal fabrics. Most recently, the company has been experimenting with ink-jet printing techniques. Leuthold and his team of 14 designers take pictures of flower arrangements, rejig them electronically and print these high-resolution creations on huge computer-controlled contraptions. It takes three hours to print 10 meters of fabric, not counting the hours it takes to make the pictures.

“We’ve been working on this for about three years,” Leuthold said. “It still takes a long time. But as soon as it’s rolled out too broadly, it will no longer be for Schlaepfer.”

Filtex SA, a privately controlled St. Gallen textile mill, owns Schlaepfer and doesn’t provide sales figures. However, Leuthold said business has been steady. The firm employs about 90 people, which he believes is just right.

“I don’t think we need to get bigger,” he said. “Our audience is the elite. We have 1,500 clients. But every year we do our turnover with about 180 clients, and it’s never the same 180 clients. We do what we think is right, but not every designer finds what he needs. We can’t please everyone, and it’s hard to think about us getting much bigger.”

But he does see opportunities on the horizon. While many European textile firms worry that China will spell disaster for the industry, Leuthold believes the country can generate new business for Schlaepfer.

“China can’t stay cheap forever,” he said. “It’s growing so fast, and people in China will want more expensive things [as they get richer]. We already have one or two clients in China. It will start changing in five or 10 years. Already Chinese are attending design schools in Europe. They’re very good and work very hard. They will bring their knowledge home. I think they will build a new [fashion] culture between Europe and China.”

In the meantime, Leuthold is happy to be in St. Gallen, far from the madding crowd.