Design
Together with our fabric and manufacturing partners in Germany, Austria, and Italy we design, develop and produce the fabrics and products for our FREDERICK & SOPHIE private label.
The Frederick & Sophie T-Shirt
Priscilla Obermeier worked together with several bespoke tailors to develop a technique that stems from the codes of custom tailoring to create the FREDERICK & SOPHIE iconic white T-Shirt.
Neckline, hemline and sleeve-endings are skilfully pinned and hand-folded to create the perfect thickness, weight and shape. The hand folded neck band is cut diagonally to stay close to the body. All T-Shirts are sewn with French silk thread.
The making of a FREDERICK & SOPHIE T-Shirt is a painstaking process, from the first cut to the final hand stitching. Yet, the end result is a piece of tailoring executed to the absolute highest level that will be treasured for years to come.
The Frederick & Sophie Fabric
Our T-shirts’ exceptionally soft yarn-dyed jersey fabric is made from the highly rare, extra long staple Karnak Menoufi Egyptian cotton yarn. Once considered a lost botanical treasure and the greatest expression of a bygone age of spinning, it requires the cultivation of a favourable agroclimatic union in Egyptian soil.
Harvested manually in Egypt, the Karnak Menoufi cotton bolls are selected when they are at the right level of maturity, and shipped to Italy where the bolls are spun into ultra fine counts. Three plies are twisted together to give rise to a strong and resistant yarn. The yarns are dyed with colorants and auxiliaries that fully respect the human health – and environmental standards established by Oeko-Tex, standard 100, Class 1 (products for children). Our Karnak Menoufi Egyptian Cotton jersey fabric is specifically created for FREDERICK & SOPHIE in Germany, turning it into a unique fabric for real connoisseurs of textile quality.
The Karnak Menoufi Yarn
This ancient Egyptian cotton is a native variety of the coastal area between the lakes Burullus and Manzala. It was found in the Nile delta, the symbol of fertility, where it seems almost pulled out of the mud and soaked in the miraculous silt. This is not a periodic gift of nature, but a harvest and an exceptional event that occurs only with the right combination of agro-climatic conditions: on lands that have unique bio-chemical features and with regular exposure to the sun and saltwater breezes from the lakes and the nearby sea. Its natural cream-coloured fiber has a long staple which makes it spinnable in ranges of ultra fine counts. The mercerization enhances the natural luster, emitting a very special pearly and iridescent light. The excellence of the processing and manufacture procedures can produce truly unique garments, for real connoisseurs of textile quality. (source: www.thecottonmuseum.com )