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  • Petra dos Santos
    copyright: Patricia Anzola

    History - From Berlin to the whole world

    In an typical historic Berlin flat at the southern end of the Kreuzberg district, the atelier of Petra dos Santos makes its home.
    A sales floor, showroom and studio workshop all fit under one roof.
    In 1998 dos Santos, a Stuttgart native, moved from Hamburg to Berlin and made her dream a reality. An exclusive leather workshop has been enriching the 'city of creatives' ever since.

    The metropolis of Berlin has become her great love. “I can no longer imagine moving my business anywhere else.”
    dos santos customers are scattered across Germany and all of Europe, Switzerland, and Japan – theoretically she could work anywhere.
    She supplies prestigious fetish boutiques and women's erotica shops with leather accessories, such as handcuffs, blindfolds, masks, collars and harnesses.

    Customers who come directly to the studio are quickly convinced by the exceptional quality of her work and her designs, and treat themselves to custom tailorings of accessories, and especially, of clothing.

    “I must admit, it tickles me every time to see the astonished faces of the clients when they realise that they're in a 'real atelier', with sewing machines, material and everything that goes along with it.”

    The work is done in the classic traditional way, including style design and cut, selection of materials, and custom fittings. The specific stages of production are very interesting for the clients.
    After all, hardly any designers actually produce in Germany anymore.
    Full of pride, she displays her newly acquired material, stretch leather. “With this, very closely-fitting designs are now possible that used to be very difficult, or just couldn't be done in leather,” she says, beaming.

    Over the years, dos santos has built up a large base of regular customers.
    “Many of them keep coming back because they found something here that exactly fits with their own style.” Satisfied customers and word-of-mouth recommendations are the best advertisements, as Petra dos Santos well knows.
    Some of her clients come from the fetish and SM communities, while others are fashion-conscious trendsetters who cherish a true original.
    dos santos tailors leathers made-to-measure to her clients' desires, contributing her own ideas in the process, and is more affordable by far than Gucci, Boss & Co., while the quality of her wares is in no way inferior to the famous designers'. Regarding her company philosophy, some fashion houses would even do well to take a tip from dos santos.

    She has little use for clichés about the wicked, nasty fetish subculture.
    “My clients are totally nice folks. The prejudices that often get presented in the media about 'perverse' have no place here. My customers are smart, fashionable people with individual style and taste, who place a high value on quality and craftsmanship.”

    Each piece is genuinely “Made in Berlin”, designed and produced by Petra dos Santos and her associate workers, whom she fondly calls “my busy bees”.

    The leathers come from German and European verified origins, with guaranteed standards of quality. “It's important to me that it not only looks beautiful, but is also free of toxins (such as cancer-causing PCPs, azo dyes, etc.) and exploitation.
    “In India or Pakistan, people work with toxic materials for starvation wages. In Europe, there are sanctions against that. I always know exactly where my leather comes from, and that obviously feels much better!” the leather expert explains.

    Yet fair trade has its price. The production costs at dos santos are extremely high. Like many of the self-employed, she cannot avoid overworking herself. When a major assignment comes in, she too must sometimes work through the nights and weekends.
    Yet she still finds it great fun. “It's just lovely, working with leather. A wonderful material. Besides, I'm my own boss, that's worth a lot to me.”
    “In my collections, sometimes I can try out something unusual; whether it will appeal to every taste is another question,” she laughs. “I still always come back to the classic elegant line in the end.”

    dos santos is a self-made success story. She never could have imagined that, 18 years ago in Hamburg, starting out as a self-taught craftsperson. She waited tables at night to finance her expensive hobby. It soon became clear that her passion for leather and design was far more than a 'hobby' to her, so she began vocational training in tailoring and leather-working.
    “I put the cart before the horse,” Petra dos Santos relates, laughing again.

    In the beginning, her dream was to create something beautiful and timeless, the so-called favourite piece of clothing, the one you never want to take off again because you feel so sexy and strong in it. Manifesting this vision is still her motivation today.

    Many thanks to River Tucker for the portrait photo
    History

  • Philosophy

    Exclusive leather design 100% made in Berlin
    dos santos stands for


    AESTHETICS
    We produce high-end leather collections and customisation for sophisticated customers who appreciate our classic and fashion conscious style.

    INDIVIDUALITY
    We make your idea become a reality through expert advice on design and materials that meet your exacting personal expectations.

    QUALITY
    The quality requirements of the designer Petra dos Santos are unmatched. Only the best leather from Europe is used, according to strict German certification regulations guaranteed free from cancer-causing substances. With our additional materials we also take a strict line on quality.
    Our motto: only the best is good enough for us!

    ETHICS
    We work with awareness for what is good for people, animals and the environment. Fair trade, free of child labor and toxic substances, is a matter of course for us.

    All dos santos leather products are designed and manufactured with lots of love in our workshop in Berlin.
     
    Philosophy

  • Press

    El Pais

    The spanish paper El Pais published an extensive interview with Petra dos Santos.
    Read the english or spanish version.

    In this article Petra talks about her work ethics, her approach to creating leather fasion and the Berlin fetish scene.


    Tush

    dos Santos Artikel in Tush
    Press

  • Press kit for download

    Brief info for press inquiries:


    dos santos – Luxury in leather

    Like a second skin, collection pieces from the dos santos studio cling to the body. Finest leather and exquisite tailoring are the trademarks of Petra dos Santos, owner and designer of the dos santos label. In her Kreuzberg atelier she produces stylish leather clothing and accessories, from fashion to fetish, for sophisticated customers.

    dos santos collections include fine leather shirts and trousers, dresses and skirts, corsets and bodices, and harnesses, as well as a multitude of accessories such as ties, collars, handcuffs, blindfolds, masks, whips and restraint gear.

    The designer handles individual requests with sensitivity and awareness of style: with made-to-measure tailoring, dos santos studio creates eccentric gala outfits and elegant evening wear, as well as ingenious custom-made designs for fetish and SM clients.

    Quality materials and superior technical craft are self-evident at dos santos. Only certified European leathers are used; production takes place entirely on-site at the leather manufacture in Berlin. Ethics and aesthetics at dos santos are bound together in the best sense of the word.

    The success of dos santos speaks for itself: Since the studio was founded in 1996, customers throughout Europe have been discovering the Berlin label. In 2011 it won the German Fetish Award for Best German Label.

    dos santos Products are available by appointment in the studio/showroom in Berlin-Kreuzberg, as well as online. Select fetish boutiques in various German and European cities also carry dos santos accessories and collection pieces.

     

    Portrait / Press article


    dos santos – The queen of leather

    Shirts of the lightest featherweight leather, bodices with cunning cuts and lacings, bizarre masks in all possible colours, and classic soirée couture in stretch leather. The objects here, produced with finest quality craftsmanship, have no equal. Petra dos Santos is the designer and owner of the dos santos label, which manufactures leathers of all varieties from fashion to fetish.

    Quality comes first at dos santos. Hardly any other label produces completely in-house in just one atelier. Here, the styles are designed and developed and each piece is sewn with one hundred percent attentive care. For the collections, only certified leathers from Europe that have been processed in locally-based tanneries are used. Sustainability and an ethically flawless production process has been a matter of course for the label ever since its founding in the mid-1990s. At dos santos, the influence of globalisation expresses itself not in the production process, but in the design.

    Paris couture, Japanese designs and the latest fetishes of Berliner subcultures inspire the designer in equal measure, which is easy to tell by seeing her in person or viewing her atelier in Kreuzberg. Petra dos Santos regularly delights her demanding clientele with new collections; she tailors to her customers' individual made-to-measure desires as well. She designs customised products for any unique occasion, regardless of whether it's a matter of classic, elegant evening dress, or eccentric fetish and SM fantasies.

    dos santos leather accessories and fashions are available in her own showroom, adjacent to the Kreuzberg leather studio workshop, and also in select boutiques in European fashion metropolises. Products include fine leather shirts and trousers, dresses and skirts, corsets and bodices, and harnesses, as well as a multitude of accessories such as ties, collars, handcuffs, blindfolds, masks, whips and restraint gear.

    Leather accessories are also available in the Online-Shop.

    The success of dos santos speaks for itself: In 2011 it won the title of Best German Label at the the German Fetish Awards.

     

     
    Download Press
Lederatelier dos santos, Mehringdamm 119, 10965 Berlin