It doesn't get any more colourful than this: Jakob Schlaepfer

Anyone who has ever had the privilege of sitting in the select audience at one of the more exclusive shows at Paris Fashion Week must surely, at some point, have been struck by the notion of perfection – the highest creativity in perfect sync with the finest materials. And when highly creative couturiers such as Chanel or Luis Vuitton utilise fabrics by Jakob Schlaepfer, it’s a communion that can equally be described as a perfect fit.

Cut from the same cloth as far as quality and creativity go, collaborations between haute couture labels and the fabric designers from St. Gallen creates fashion that makes you forget your everyday life and all its problems: through artistic patterns, innovative ideas, high-quality workmanship and a noticeable light-heartedness.

When Jakob Schlaepfer decided almost fifteen years ago to begin designing for interiors also, it was a colourful sensation. Since then, the Swiss company has been one of the most creative suppliers in the field of interior design. For the current collection, the team surprises not only with original designs and strong colours, but also with extraordinary techniques developed specifically for the implementation of the new designs.

Filo Punto is a true masterpiece of Jacquard weaving. The material proof of how much a touch of nothing can have is created by packing loose weft threads in organza and overprinting them. The result is a semi-transparent fabric of unbelievable lightness and at the same time intensely colourful.

For Sophie, a homage to the Bauhaus and the Swiss artist Sophie Täuber-Arp, white squares are first embroidered on the basic fabric and then printed using a special process. No less innovative is the Trama fabric, in which the warp threads are partially omitted, creating a look reminiscent of a digital stretch effect.

The impressive craftsmanship and wealth of ideas can also be transferred to walls, as Jakob Schlaepfer's wallpapers show. With eight current designs, interior design is raised to a new level, and art brought to life.

The abstract paintings by Vello Emilio and Vello Vernice are printed on matt fleece. This gives the impression that an artist has actually used the wall as canvas with a strong brushstroke. A rather surreal-collage-like style is created by combining floral and crystalline motifs on Vello Bijoux.

Jakob Schlaepfer created the prerequisites for working with holographically shimmering optics years ago with their globally unique Glinka, made of polyester. The wallpaper Glinka Abbonda is designed as a space-consuming border and makes full use of the possibility of radiating with light-refracting effects. Floral motifs, ornaments and sculptures are combined here with a baroque-style playfulness to form a visually stunning unity.

What is special about all designs is that they function not only as comprehensive wall coverings, but also as small-scale design elements. 'Some of our customers take just a section of one of our wallpapers and hang it framed on the wall like a painting,' says Corinne Kramer, Sales Manager for Interiors at Jakob Schlaepfer. They make an impression as a single motif and can be optimised over a large area for any size and flexibly adapted to all spatial contexts.

Just as Jakob Schlaepfer's fine fabrics have been inspiring the best fashion designers around the globe for a hundred years, so too are the interior textiles and wallpaper designs in demand among the greats of contemporary interior design. In addition to IDA14 and Jasmin Grego, Ushi Tamborriello deserves special mention, who likes to add an extra highlight to her fantastic interior scenarios with Jakob Schlaepfer's creations. They can be seen, for example, at the Hotel Seerose Cocon in Meisterschwanden or at the Campus Restaurant in Brugg-Windisch.

The wallpaper and fabric trends have one clear advantage over their counterparts in the fashion world: they are not so easily perishable. VOGUE boss Anna Wintour once said: 'You can’t really worry too much by looking to the left and the right about what the competition is doing or what other people in your field are doing. It has to be a true vision.' You don’t need to tell Jakob Schlaepfer.


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