Stephan Schneider's Unambiguous Originality

After graduating from Antwerp's Royal Academy for Fine Arts in 1994, Stephan Schneider wasted no time getting his collection off the ground. The young designer was immediately selected to show at Paris Fashion Week, where he says Antwerp designers were still "underdogs in the fashion business." When international buyers started placing orders, however, Stephen Schneider went straight to work and his collection of signature men's and women's pieces instantly took off. The first European flagship store opened in Antwerp in 1996, followed by a Tokyo location in 2001. The company, growing larger every season, is now sold in more than 70 retail doors worldwide.

Schneider currently teaches in the fashion department of the Berlin University of Fine Arts, and, in many ways, he exemplifies Berlin's burgeoning fashion scene. "Berlin is authentic but not established, which makes it so different from all the other fashion capitals in the world," notes Schneider. "In Berlin you don't have to fight against any conservative players in the fashion establishment, you have to create your own position."

And create his own position he did, developing a line based around distinctive pieces presented in a variety of fabrics, using the same materials for both menswear and womenswear. By making masculine and feminine items from the same cloth, Schneider blurs gender lines, giving women's designs a masculine edge and menswear a soft elegance. "The [clothes] are relaxed yet sophisticated, and it is this combination that distinguishes the collection from the rest," Schneider boasts.

When it comes to finding inspiration for his line, Schneider maintains his unique outlook. "I have a love-hate relationship with the mass that surrounds me. Though fashion should stress individuality and uniqueness, I am fascinated by the mass consumption. The same Celine Dion song played in the same hotel lobbies all over the world,” he further explains. Trying to reflect mass culture in his work, Schneider ensures that his pieces, while identifiable, will not "serve as status symbols." Though he blurs the line between masculine and feminine, sophistication and casualness, mass society and individual expression, Stephan Schneider is unambiguously original.

For more information see www.stephanschneider.be.

—Rebecca Pattiz