About Saint and Sofia
We believe in fair, sustainable fashion for all.
Saint and Sofia is an award winning brand based in London, England creating fashion and accessories that are fair and sustainable. We believe in challenging the status quo; fusing the art of design with the science of production. We design all of our styles in our London studios and make them in Europe with family-owned factories that we control.
Started in January 2020, we have dedicated operations and Fulfilment Centres in the USA, UK and Europe supporting over 300,000 customers. The Saint and Sofia team, now over 50 people, previously worked at brands such as Louis Vuitton, Roland Mouret, Ted Baker and French Connection. Our founders, Malcolm and Dessi Bell, won the National Business Award for E-Commerce Strategy and were nominated for the Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In March 2023, we were awarded the Investors in People Gold Award for creating an outstanding working environment for our team. In June 2023, we were also nominated for the Employer of The Year Award.
Saint and Sofia styles have been featured in Vanity Fair, Vogue, Stylist, Harpers Bazaar, The Times and others. We have donated to the Natural History Museum in London, the Trees for Cities charity and are working to support the work of the V&A Museum and Central St. Martins design college. In 2020, we supported key workers and donated to Oxford University to support their vital research and development of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Each month, Saint and Sofia donates items to charities including Smartworks and womens shelters in the South East of England.
We design all of our collections in our studios on the Southbank in London, inspired by modern culture, art and music (the art). We've spent years building a smart supply chain using data science, machine learning and lean manufacturing principles (the science). This way, we're able to offer better value and fairer prices to our customers because our costs are lower. We have dedicated sampling studios and offices in Europe that oversees the production of all of our styles. For instance, our scarves, trainers and boots are all made with the finest materials in Italy with artisan craftsmen who make a few at a time. Our tailors and seamstresses use modern technology or work by hand to finish every style with care.
Storytelling is core to what we believe; that fashion can excite and enrich our everyday lives. We believe that storytelling can be powerful, allowing us to escape for even the briefest of moments to explore new places, themes and ideas. We love to tell stories, inspired by our collections and the world around us.
We’re serious about sustainability. We only use natural or recycled fabrics, bio-degradeable packaging and minimise transportation distance to reduce our impact on the environment. We’ve partnered with the London based Charity Trees for Cities to further offset our carbon footprint by planting trees.
Saint and Sofia is opening a store in Covent Garden London in November 2024 at 35-37 Monmouth Street with more stores to follow in 2025.
The Art of Design
Our design and development team in London takes inspiration from the arts, music and popular culture to create current, versatile styles with a twist. The design team visit art galleries, work with artists and draw inspiration from the creative arts when designing styles in seasonal collections.
Every year we produce Collections for Spring-Summer and Autumn-Winter. We have dedicated designers for Ready to Wear, Accessories, Homeware and Wall Art. In between seasonal collections, we work with artists and master craft makers to create special collections. We’re also working with Central St. Martins to support the talents of young British designers and garment technologists.
We work collaboratively with customers to engineer optimal fit and feel using the finest fabrics. We believe in being inclusive. We're one of a handful of brands to offer a broad size range of 9 sizes - from UK 6 (US 2) to UK 22 (US 18) with Petite, Regular and Tall inseam options. Every style is optimised using feedback from customers.
Every product starts with an idea. Ideas are drawn and sketched by hand and brought to life in house by cutting and fitting each piece. We test wearability and fit extensively with multiple testers to ensure our products work on all body types, big and small.
Creative & Design Awards
The Saint and Sofia creative team have been awarded and recognised for outstanding work in film making.
A love for story telling
Storytelling is core to what we believe; that fashion can excite and enrich our everyday lives. We believe that storytelling can be powerful, allowing us to escape for even the briefest of moments to explore new places, themes and ideas. We love to tell stories, inspired by our collections and the world around us. Each of our campaigns is created by our in-house team, shot on location or in our London studios. Our campaigns are what we are feeling and thinking based on the events, culture and movements around us.
Credits: Photographed by Michael Higham, Modelled by Anastazja Rendak and Wing Leung. Saint and Sofia Studios, London SE1.
Business On Top Campaign, Saint and Sofia (SS20)
Our Business on Top campaign explores our changing relationship with what we wear and when we wear it as we stay connected through video calls. We’re living through a new, shared reality that sees us more physically separate but more emotionally connected than ever. In the Spring/Summer of 2020 many of us were working from home. We saw customers make a clear choice - a preference for comfort with casual styles on bottom and more tailored, smarter styles on top.
Credits: Photographed by Michael Higham, Modelled by Anastazja Rendak and Wing Leung. Saint and Sofia Studios, London SE1.
Quality from start to finish
We've built a smart supply chain using data science, lean manufacturing principles and just in time production. Our Factories are all family owned and share our values of fairness. We have a dedicated production team in Europe that visits our factories every week. This way, we can guarantee the quality of each and every single style we make. The goal was to produce efficiently, in a sustainable way to minimise cost and the impact on the environment. This way, we're able to offer a fairer price to customers because our costs are lower. We've also optimised our logistics, transport and production to reduce transport distance and cost.
We created a dedicated production team in Europe who can sample and manufacture every style on a 'Just in time' basis. We re-stock styles on a weekly basis to our logistics facilities in the UK, USA and EU. We manufacture all of our styles in-house with partners in Europe. We've hand picked manufacturing partners in Italy, Portugal, Turkey and Bulgaria who share our passion for production to create styles in an efficient, sustainable way. We directly source fabrics, details and trims in Europe from family owned suppliers.
Our Partners
We're proud to support the important work of British institutions and charities in developing the arts, science and sustainability.
Seriously Sustainable
We passionately believe in being serious about sustainability and that we have a responsibility to each other and to the planet. We make all of our styles in the most sustainable way because we believe in making products that are good for you and minimise our impact on the environment. This means being conscious of the effect each part of our design and supply chain has on us, our customers and the planet. We believe every business has a duty to have a positive social impact.
How we work sustainably:
- - Packaging with bio-degradable materials
- - Using eco fabrics such as Ecovero & Cupro
- - Using Certified Organic Cotton
- - Less carbon footprint with smart sourcing
- - Reducing transportation distance
- - Planting Trees with Trees for Cities
- - Using minimal / no dyes in packaging
- - Funding research of Natural History Museum
Broadly speaking, fashion has had a negative environmental impact. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Wherever possible, we use natural or eco-friendly materials and fabrics like GOTS Certified Organic Cotton, Ecovero, Econyl and Tencel. We’re mindful that the production of fabrics has a meaningful impact on the environment and our climate.
For instance, non-organic cotton is one of the most treated crops on the planet. For 1 pound of raw cotton in the US, 1/3 pounds of synthetic fertilisers are used. 1 pound of raw cotton is roughly used to make a single t-shirt. In just one year in 2011, more than 2.03 billion pounds of synthetic fertilisers were used on cotton in the USA alone.
Conventional cotton also utilises between 3 and 5 times more energy to produce than organic cotton. Organic cotton is superior to conventional cotton in terms of increasing biodiversity, mitigating climate change by elimination of intensive fertilisers, reducing water contamination and consumption, preserving soil quality and reducing energy requirements. It’s also very soft on your skin making it good for you and good for nature.
We started Plant as a global movement to plant trees. As parents, we care deeply about the environment we create for our children. We believe in the science of Climate change, a complex and multi-faceted problem that will require significant innovation over the next few decades. We’re committed to doing our part.
Supporting Creativity
We passionately believe in supporting creativity and in particular, young creative talent. We have a young team of over 50 professionals building careers in product design, creative and production. We produce all of our photography, video, and copy in our London-based studios and we have office locations in the USA, UK, and Europe supporting logistics and manufacturing.
Our design team in London is supported by young apprentices from London's best fashion and design schools to produce trending, high-quality styles for each season. Every design is considered with both comfort and durability in mind. Our goal is to fuse the expression and creativity of design with the functional, durability of every style to ensure it stands the test of time.
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