Jakob Schlaepfer

Textile design and manufacturing company Jakob Schlaepfer was established in St Gallen in 1904 as an embroidery business. The now globally successful company designs and produces around 3,000 types of textiles, characterised by their innovation and vibrancy, and supplies them to haute couture and prêt-à-porter fashion designers such as Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, and Louis Vuitton among others. In 2008, Jakob Schlaepfer also launched an interior decoration collection, Décor, which includes curtains, wallpapers and wall-coverings created using a combination of industrial and state-of-the-art technology and handcrafting techniques. Schlaepfer was awarded the prestigious Red Dot Design Award and the Design Preis Schweiz Award in 2011 for their groundbreaking, innovative fabric Phantom, an iridescent high-tech material made of bronze, aluminium and copper fibres. Weighing just 10 grams per square metre, it is the lightest fabric in the world.