About Our Work

Tradition, Modern Design and High-Tech

Atelier Zündt offers high class pattern collections for embroidery.

St. Gallen is and remains the world's centre for embroidery. As early as the 19th century many of the homes owned by the aristocracy were adorned with embroidery from St. Gallen and even the White House in Washington was one of the loyal customers. This tradition lives on - although now in the very latest form!

In those days St. Gallen embroidery was represented at all the world's major exhibitions and enjoyed unbounded success. For example, it soon became impossible to imagine any of the top racehorse meetings without seeing this exclusive form of textile art in attendance; Paris Longchamp, Auteuil or Deauville. "Swiss embroidery" could be purchased in all the major department stores of the Western world, for example from Montgomery Ward in New York. Even today the leading fashion designers of haute-couture repeatedly use St. Gallen embroidery: Cardin, Chanel, Dior, Armani, Ungaro, Givenchy, La Croix, Ricci, Saint-Laurent etc. There were in fact periods when St. Gallen embroidery was frequently the biggest selling Swiss export!

Tradition lives on

Atelier Zündt is located in the peaceful rural setting of Altenrhein, a small town near the centre for embroidery in St. Gallen: this is where high class pattern collections for embroidery are created on the basis of longstanding tradition, although with contemporary, modern designs which always reflect the latest trend as their creators naturally keep their finger on the pulse of current fashion, identifying new trends even before they become public knowledge. - But who are these actual creative designers?

Felix Zündt

Felix Zündt was born in 1935 in Balgach in the St. Gallen Rhine Valley. After completing his education he successfully passed his training to become a designer in a leading textile company, continued his training in England. Following his return he again worked as a designer in the textile sector, in fact spending three years as a lecturer at the Swiss College of Textiles, Clothing and Fashion, the STF, in St. Gallen before setting up in business himself. His work involved on the one side producing his own creations and on the other, taking on orders for designs. Obviously, his studio not only carried out work for Swiss-based customers but also supplied punch cards (i.e. the patterns were converted into perforated cards for use on embroidery machines) which served as bases for high quality embroidery firms in around 30 countries. These were sent for example not only to Italy and France, the home of the world's leading fashion designers, but also to Japan! "Nowadays however" stated Felix Zündt, "these punch cards are virtually a thing of the past. This is because in the computer age we obviously supply our designs as software on diskettes or via the Internet from where anyone can personally download the programs onto their diskettes so these can then be used on their own embroidery machines."

Urban Zündt

Urban Zündt, the son of Felix Zündt, was born in 1960 and obviously inherited his father's imagination and creative drive. He also trained as a designer but at the same time studied business administration. At the young age of twenty he joined Atelier Zündt and, as expected, brought with him the "fresh new ideas" of the younger generation. Whereas in the past the company only designed, punched and dispatched pattern collections, he was now in favor of purchasing multi-head embroidery machines which could be used to also produce the designs themselves. This led to the creation of a new branch of business which immediately blossomed and flourished. For example, the company supplied the Swiss Army with most of the embroidered emblems for its uniforms following the reform of the Army in 1995.

Urban Zündt even created the technique of applying delicate colored embroidery to sheer ladies tights. "Up to now, we are the only company in the world able to do that" he states, not without some pride. "It took endless technical innovations and practical trials before we finally succeeded. " - If Felix Zündt were to one day decide that he wishes to leave the company then his son and heir will in any event guarantee not only the continuation but also the expansion of the successful enterprise!

Emphasis on quality

St. Gallen embroidery was and remains in demand not purely because of its beautiful patterns and clever design ideas but in particular because of its consistent high quality at all times. Repeated attempts have of course been made in various quarters to copy this art so it can then be offered more cheaply. However, this was always to the detriment of the technical precision, the high quality and lasting value of the finish and in fact had a negative effect on the beauty. By contrast, the impressive features of Atelier Zündt are not only its brilliant patterns, exquisite designs, original ideas, new color combinations and modern trends for the current market, but also its know-how and skill which has developed and matured through tradition and practice which is always realized using the latest technology.

This includes the so-called lace technique, a technique used in standard practice hundreds of years ago; the exquisite lace patterns are embroidered on a thin material base and joined together with fine stitched bridging. The entire piece can then be placed in a water bath which washes off all the excess material. This creates incredibly beautiful and transparent lace for adorning high quality clothing items and other textiles. Atelier Zündt therefore also offers, amongst other designs, exclusive lace collections which make the hearts of all home embroiderers skip a beat!

Love of creative design

You can sense that the passion for the creative profession of the designer is very much at home here at Atelier Zündt. There is a desire to create ever new and more modern collections - and the desire for all clients wishing to use the high quality Zündt patterns to also be able to truly benefit from the decades of experience and wealth of know-how of the two imaginative designers and, naturally, for them to experience guaranteed success!