welcome magazin

welcome december 2000

new fashion

next summer the trend colours will be pink, orange and shimmering bright hues. women will be wearing feminine blouses over trousers, slacks or skirts which stop just below the knee. at least, that is the view sabine schumacher (30) has of next season’s fashion wear. her collection exudes femininity, luxury and simplicity. this newcomer to the fashion scene has already gained a following in north rhine-westphalia and has been celebrated as shows in paris. tres chic. sabine schumacher recently moved her business to larger premises in a former boys’ high school in the düsseldorf district of oberkassel. a classroom and two adjoining office rooms now house her business and afford ample space for a cutting table, industrial sewing machines, ironing tables, rolls of cloth, tailors’ dummies and all the other paraphernalia. this space is a crucible of creative ideas and the place where claudia thiermann (31 years) and christa pabst (51 years) cut a sew, translating designs into size 36, i.e. garments for the european market. christa ensures that patterns for garments of up to size 42 can also be created. and in the evenings sabine schumacher’s husband, andreas schott – an architect by profession – takes on the task of bookkeeper and accountant. it is very much a family business. sabine schumacher started her success story on an uneventful sunday afternoon in the early 1980’s. she had been watching one of those sunday afternoon films on television. the film featured glamorous mannequins flaunting parisian haute couture. sabine was eleven at the time, but she never forgot the experience and soon began making her own creations equipped with scissors, cloth and yarn. she began drawing at a early age and was keenly interested in design. she was fascinated by clothes from an early age and believes that she may have turned to fashion design because she rarely found the kind of garments that she herself imagined in the stores. often, she would alter the clothes that she had bought. ”some pullovers would be taken apart” in order to achieve the look she wanted. when she was 16 sabine schumacher began a three-year apprenticeship as a dressmaker. after working for two and a half years in a firm in bocholt making ladies’ fashion garments for a large chain store, she studied in duisburg where she completed her university entrance exams and specialized in design in preparation for studies at the fashion school of düsseldorf. aged twenty-five and the proud holder of a degree, sabine schumacher was now in need of her own studio and a sound basis to work from. these needs were met by the creativ-haus at the world’s largest fashion fair – known as the igedo. to be accepted here she had to present her work to some of the trade’s top people. ”no oral examination could have been more intimidating”, she reports in hindsight. she presented her outfits, made in her modest apartment-cum-studio, to a jury which included industry names such as toni lirsch, boss of the brand-name company toni gard. she was offered a stand at igedo. ”i wanted lots of colour for my new collection”, she tells us, pulling at a long roll of cloth, ”and i wanted blouses”. the young designer, brunette, slim (fashion size 38) and a sumptuous 1.75 metres tall, could easily model her own creations, but it is easy to see where her passion lies. her tailors’ dummies are sporting slim pink skirts, colourful blouses hang from chrome coat hangers, the studio abounds in colourful shimmering samples of linen and polyamide fabrics from italy – many of them printed batik style. last year her summer fashion was dominated by white. pink is a recent love. who knows what the autumn/winter season has in store. sabine is keeping quiet for the time being. cord velvet, velvet and woollen fabrics in black and moss green seem to predominate. skirts, she suggests, will be floor long. coats and jackets will have bell shaped sleeves. it is a clear departure from previous styles. ”i want to reflect the mood of society. there is a sense of prosperity and security. the previous reservation of my work will be replaced by luxury.” yet although this, her seventh collection, is typified by opulence, sabine schumacher still adulates purists such as armani and jil sander. ”women who wear my fashion can play the key role and also retreat in the background”, she tells us. the sabine schumacher label can be found in berlin, dublin, antwerp, arnheim, berne and vienna. not to mention closer to home in hannover, bielefeld, schwerte, krefeld and moers – but not yet in düsseldorf, the region’s fashion capital. the fashion-maker is no longer nervous about finding contacts and getting established. she is a regular at the cpd – new style igedo – and has been approached about showing in paris, a prospect that excites her. she would like to see her models at pret-a-porter shows in the french metropolis. this obviously means increased pressure. three months before the fashion fair opens is naturally a period of hectic preparation and she often works from nine in the morning to eight at night – sometimes later. the last four weeks prior opening there is not a free weekend. her daughter, greta, sees less of her mother then. nonetheless, sabine schumacher keeps a clear head and stays in control. she enjoys her work, likes seeking out the right accessories, creating a new line of men’s fashion clothing and anticipates the opening of her own shop with delight. until she can open her own store in düsseldorf fashion quarter she contents herself with what she has achieved in a trade that seh loves.

sabine schumacher born 1970 in wesel, lower rhine. following a traineeship as a dressmaker, she studied design in düsseldorf and in 1995 received a grant to study from the german garments industry. in 1996 she premiered at the igedo with her first collection and received the nrw fashion view award for outstanding fashion design. she established her own label in 1997 and in early 2000 reached third position in a talent competition – the new faces award – run by the magazine ”die bunte”. the jury included hugo boss chief werner baldessarani. sabine schumacher is married and has one daughter.