Why shop with us
"Beauty, comfort, breathe" is our mantra for selecting fabrics, because every fabric should feel as beautiful as it looks. And that’s just one reason to shop with us…
Great selection of premium apparel fabrics
We carry exceptional, hard-to-find fabrics of the very best quality in a full range of colors. It all started with mulberry silk, then we added linen and brocade and recently we’ve extended our selection to embrace ecological materials like Tencel, modal, EcoVero and cupro. To keep our edge, we visit international fabric expos, follow new trends and technological innovations, and select notable new fabrics for you at reasonable prices.
Free swatches – see before you buy
All of our fabrics have an excellent cost-to-quality ratio. We understand, though, that every purchase is a significant investment, especially when luxury silk fabrics are in play. That’s why we offer up to five free fabric swatches. We’ll slip your samples into an ordinary envelop and shoot them to you in the mail. There’s no need to go out on a limb for a fabric you’ve never held in your hands – with a free swatch you can verify the quality and color of the fabric yourself before making your purchase.
Fabrics that feel as beautiful as they look
“Beauty, comfort, breathe” is our mantra when selecting fabrics. We love gorgeous, top-shelf textiles, yet we see beauty in a broader context. Beyond pretty colors and great textures, we evaluate each fabric for its comfort and breathability, giving preference to fabrics with truly extraordinary tactile qualities. Our linens are pre-softened and comfortable on bare skin. Our brocades are smooth, not scratchy. In short, we believe that beautiful fabrics should feel beautiful too.
Fabrics from pure natural materials
We love natural materials and they will always come first in our selection. Organic fibers practically always fulfill our rule of three: Beauty, comfort, breathability. In a perfect world, we might only stock pure, natural textiles, but it would be a pity to pass up on premium synthetic materials like Tencel and modal. We try to select only the best quality natural materials for our fabrics, so that they will endure to bring you joy for years to come. We should conserve our limited natural resources, not waste them on throw-away fashions.
Experts in silk
It always comes back to silk for us. Silk fabric was the very first thing we sold, our specialty, filling a void in the market at the time. Back then, we didn’t carry the full spectrum of silks we have today. Travelling the “silk road” for so long, we’ve picked up a fair amount of knowledge and we learn something new every day. We add new finds to our silk fabric selection regularly and expand our stock to include other interesting materials. Silk will always be the pillar on which Sartor stands, and our greatest passion.
Fabrics from modern materials
While we absolutely love natural materials, we have to admit that humankind has come up with one or two great contributions to the textile field too. We take an interest in modern synthetic materials and select the best of these for our customers. The bottom line is that they meet our standards for beauty, comfort, and breathability, and if they can offer something more – like a reasonable price tag, some extraordinary quality, or environmental friendliness – so much the better.
Responsible fabric collections
Environmental conservation and sustainability are more than just a passing thing for us. We have no use for “greenwashing,” when a company postures ecologically, just on the surface, to impress its customers. Ecological impact and sustainability are real factors for us, but even so, our selection of wares is not perfect. We always investigate the origins of our products, search for fabrics produced using ecofriendly technologies (like EcoVero) and put long-lasting quality first. We continue to expand our selection of responsibly manufactured fabrics, but it also depends on you, our customers: Insist on ecological materials, even if they cost a few pennies more, then sellers like us will be glad to stock even more!
Top-quality materials
Quite frankly, we are not interested in selling junk. Quality is an absolute priority. Good fabrics are a pleasure to wear and they last longer. Items sewn with them won’t become worthless rags after just one season. An investment in quality is rewarded in every beautifully tailored piece that brings joy over the years. We endeavor to find great materials at a good price, but never at the cost of quality.
Our exclusive, limited-edition fabrics
For a number of years now we’ve been creating our own collection of historical fabrics with authentic Medieval, Renaissance and newer motifs. Designs are culled from historical sources. We study them and painstakingly reproduce them so that we can offer our customers unprecedented and perfect authenticity.
We are now launching a new campaign focused on modern, elegant womenswear prints. There are plenty of attractive, patterned fabrics on the children’s market, but the selection for adults is sadly lacking. We want to expand our own collection of original, designer fabrics, gathering a team of talented people who know how to create beautiful, new, print designs. (Are you a creative? Get in touch!)
Authentic period fabric reproductions
Our reproduction fabrics are based on actual, verified, historical sources. For each pattern, we conduct in-depth research, leaving no stone unturned: We check for original material, color authenticity, weaving technique. The process involves digging through mounds of literature and working with curators at museums and private collections all over the world. Then begins the complex and time-consuming process of transferring the selected design into digital format and delivering it to our trusted suppliers to be woven into a final product. Historical textiles are more to us than just an item for sale, they really are a passion.
Fabric with a story
We know more than just the textile content and technical details of our fabrics – we also know exactly where they come from. Some we actually pick up ourselves and others we order from trusted suppliers and warehouses that we have personally visited. The same is true for fabrics from China and India. We know the local weavers, have visited their workshops, and know first-hand what the conditions are like (no child labor!) and we are not limited by language barriers – we can communicate in several languages, including Chinese, so we communicate personally with our suppliers on a regular basis.
We work with manufacturers and small, family weavers. This personal approach has helped get us behind the scenes, for example to see how metallic thread is made by hand or where organic dyes are mixed. We also work directly with suppliers in Europe, where we are based. Personal relationships and trust have always been important to us.
We put our fabric to the test
Selling fabric is something that we came to through sewing – and to this day we still try out and test our fabrics in the sewing room. We chose fabrics for the shop that are more than just pretty – they’re a joy to sew with and a joy to wear. We know how our fabrics behave and we can tell you how to handle them, how to take care of them, and just what each is best suited for. If any fabric fails to meet our standards, it has no place in our shop. Due to this longstanding practice, a unique assortment has crystalized, characterized by beauty and extraordinary quality.
Friendly customer service
Fabrics are truly our passion. Although each member of the Sartor team specializes in something different – historical textiles, sewing, fabric varieties – when we put our heads together, we’ve got a fair amount of knowledge to put to your service. Our staff know their way around our fabrics. They won’t just mark up your purchase and hand it over – they can help you select just the right material and they’ll always make you feel there’s no such thing as a stupid question.
Specialized notions and sewing supplies
Our selection is rounded out by a specialized stock of hard-to-find notions. There are plenty of shops that carry a vast selection of ho-hum sewing supplies, but there will always be a few things that are missing – good quality corset boning, real silk ribbons, linen thread, and silk thread. If there’s anything you always seem to have trouble finding elsewhere, get in touch. We’ll consider adding it to our selection.
Selected fashion accessories in gorgeous materials
Accessories are not our main line but sometimes we just can’t resist. On our travels we sometimes run into gorgeous accessories like the hand-woven cashmere scarves from a family of weavers we work with, or the lovely, reasonably priced, freshwater pearls that go so beautifully with silk.