What: Salone del Mobile, Design Fair Where: Milan, Italy Each…
Luxury cushions in abundance
Who: Susann Eschenfelder – Fabric-Refiner and Designer
Where: Hamburg and London
„There’s only a very little market in Germany for what I’m doing”, explains designer Susann Eschenfelder in her Hamburg atelier and points on her extravagant, elaborate pillows. “The Germans prefer a rather reserved interior style and don’t really like experiments.” That’s the reason why she spends the weekdays in London, as there are lots of interior design bureaus with international clients.
Susann Eschenfelders works are total artworks that consist out of high-quality fabrics. Those are embroidered with semi-precious stones, gold- and silver threads, nacre and tortoiseshell or elaborate veiled with fur. Of course everything is individually made by hand and specially tailored to customers. Like a cushion lined with sable and embroidered with gold threads for the yacht of a Russian obligator.
Such a luxury costs in the higher, four-digit area. Susann Eschenfelder designed an elaborate embroidery for the wall with suiting silk curtains for an apartment in London at the Hydepark. And the private cinema of the client got a silken wall covering with filigree cherry blossom branches in Chinese stile. Of course, the fabric-refiner doesn’t say anything about the names of her clients or about the prices.
“The individuality and the exceptionality are very important to my clients”, explains Susann Eschenfelder, who creates not only romantic but also modern motives. “Nobody of my client wants something the others already got.” Thereby the Saarlander already made the experience that money and taste inevitably don’t have something in common: “I’m always happy when my pillows complement a succeeded spatial installation.”
Eschenfelder, who worked for Jil Sander and Wolfgang Joop for years, loves graphical-floral and colorful Pucci-fabrics, throughout her colorful lampshades are being made – meanwhile sought objects at her clients. The vintage-fabrics aren’t easy to find and accordingly expensive.
It can take weeks until a pillow is finished, depending on effort and embroideries. “And then especially the German customers come to me and ask, why the cushions are so expensive”, says Susann Eschenfelder. “My foreign clientele appreciates the craft and rejoices the beauty of extraordinary materials. And isn’t it wonderful to afford oneself something to create a luxury surrounding?” BvH
Contact:
www.susanneschenfelder.com