Samantha Sleeper

September 1st, 2011

In Samantha Sleeper’s studio in Brooklyn sits a box full of lace. What a buyer of her clothing may not know is that Sleeper actually knows the technical process behind making the most intricate lace available today. She worked at Solstiss in Caudry, France, one of the last great European lace factories. Solstiss is responsible for producing the couture-level lace seen in runway shows like Christian Dior and Chanel. It’s produced on antiquated leavers lace machines, of which there are probably only around 40 left around the world, and it takes two people a day and a half to thread the machines. (And you thought production in the garment district took a long time?)

Sleeper’s process oriented approach to fashion developed from her exposure to the traditional methods used by the artisans in France. For her own clothing, she produces exclusively in America. It’s not a marketing gimmick and she doesn’t really advertise it unless asked, but she sees American made clothing as a critical part of the future of design in the country. States Sleeper, “My daughter will not be able to start a fashion line in NYC at the rate it’s going. There won’t be any sample rooms or pleating facilities left.”

She is not an advocate for producing everything in America and she is realistic about the strengths of other countries. She admits that Italy will always have the best leather, and that China will have the best technology. Yet everything down to the fabric of her clothing is American. Her line is meant to have a sense of utility, to utilize fabrics ‘with a little bit of backbone’ to them.After gaining her technical experience at the looms in France, Sleeper was offered an internship at Alexander McQueen. She had to turn down this job for financial reasons, but she was soon hired by Nicolette Prpa, who owns “She Boutique” in Chicago, to start a private label collection.

At the young age of 22, Sleeper began her role as creative director for the luxury womenswear line NPRPA. Soon after, she began a secondary line called Saturday Night/Sunday Morning that was characterized by fun, easy-to-wear basics. When given an unexpected deadline for a look book, the designer made it into a performance art piece. She called over her friends who were in bands, brought a couple of bottles of Jameson to loosen the mood, and shot her look-book in odd locations around New York City.This was well-suited for the Saturday Night/Sunday Morning name. When Sleeper decided to leave NPRPA, she was torn. “It was like losing my baby,” the designer said, “I didn’t really know where to go from there.”

Now, Samantha Sleeper is working on her own line of clothing. Expect her next season to be brighter and more colorful than anything she has previously done. “The world was dark then…now I do not see clothes as armor,” she says. Her walls are lined with colorful threads and abstract expressionist paintings by Rothko.