Creativity
Storytelling is universal. From the dawn of time, we’ve told each other stories to inspire, entertain and inform. When we started Saint and Sofia, we wanted to offer fair, sustainable fashion that balanced the science of production with the art of storytelling, celebrating creativity and nurturing young, British talent.
At Saint and Sofia, we create current, versatile styles with a twist, and every collection is inspired by the arts, music, and popular culture. This begins with our design team, led by Megan Aylott (Central St. Martins). Each season, the team chooses colours, textures, and shapes that tell a story. Our creative team, led by Michael Higham, then explores that story further, reimagining and reinventing it through photography and moving images. We feel privileged to be able to do what we love.
Our campaigns are a reaction to the cultural events and moments happening around us; we believe we have a responsibility to be a reflection of the time. This means some of our campaigns deliver a political or social message: our ‘Into the Night’ campaign highlighted the dangers of misinformation, while our ‘All Dressed Up’ campaign was inspired by the mix of hope, anxiety and despair felt by many Londoners during the ‘Great Pandemic’ of 2020 - particularly those in the performing arts.
First and foremost, we are creatives. We’ve tried to create an environment in which expression and creativity can thrive - infusing our collections and storytelling with art, music, and culture that’s distinctly British.
Passion for design
Our design 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 our seasonal collections. The team is led by our Head of Design, Megan Aylott, who graduated from Central St. Martins.
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.
Nurturing Ideas
Every new styles starts with an idea. Ideas are drawn and sketched by hand and brought to life in-house by cutting and fitting each piece in our dedicated sampling studios. In the design stage, we play with colours and details before bringing each style to life. Once we have the first version, we fit and test wearability and durability. We’ll make iterations and test out new ideas, we gather feedback from customers and refine until we have a finished style that meets our high standards of quality.
Celebrating art
Fashion and art have always gone hand in hand; both crafts reflecting and a reflection of the world around them. And with art, culture, and music at the heart of our design process, the Saint and Sofia team is passionate about supporting up-and-coming artists, encouraging them to grow, and following them on their journey.
As part of this collaboration, we’re launching our ‘The Artist’ campaign series, in which we profile some of our favourite emerging artists, musicians, and creatives. In our very first campaign, we’re shining a light (and pointing our camera lens) onto artist and model Charlotte Rose.
Dressed in a few styles from Saint and Sofia’s new collection SS21 Collection, Charlotte allowed us into her studio to delve deeper into her creative process - colourful spray paint and all.
Research & Development
We optimise every style to fit every body shape. We’ll be introducing petite and tall sizes in the Spring and different lengths of the inseam. We measure precisely and work with our pattern makers and garment technologists to get close to the most flattering fit.
The fit of every product is always a challenge if it's not individually tailored. We're very mindful of the variety of shapes and sizes of customers all over the world. Whilst we make every effort to flatter every shape, we don't always get it right the first time. That's why listening to customer feedback is so important.
We have specially designed our supply chain to be able to make rapid changes to each product. We work closely with our production partners, most of whom are also family-owned businesses, to be able to respond quickly to customer demand and feedback.
Fine Fabrics
We work hard to find the finest fabrics and materials so that every style is comfortable to wear and a joy to touch. We always will choose the more sustainable option, whether it’s Organic Cotton or ECONYL or other regenerated yarns that are kind to your skin and the environment.
We have a bank of fabric swatches in our design studios in London that enable our designers to feel the fabrics before we design using them. We then make a sample in our sampling studio to see how it looks, feels, wears, and hangs. These fabric samples are also tested for washability and recovery to ensure they are easy to manage once you have received them. In our testing facilities, we sometimes will wash a product on 400-500 wash cycles to see how it can cope at different temperatures.
The art of storytelling
Our campaigns are a reaction to the cultural events and moments happening around us; we believe we have a responsibility to be a reflection of the time. This means some of our campaigns deliver a political or social message: our ‘Into the Night’ campaign highlighted the dangers of misinformation, while our ‘All Dressed Up’ campaign was inspired by the mix of hope, anxiety and despair felt by many Londoners during the ‘Great Pandemic’ of 2020 - particularly those in the performing arts.
First and foremost, we are creatives. We’ve tried to create an environment in which expression and creativity can thrive - infusing our collections and storytelling with art, music, and culture that’s distinctly British.
