Werkstatt is one of the few studios in New York’s Garment District that specializes in high-fashion sample making. Its founder Tina Schenk grew up in a small town in East Germany, where as a teenager she studied men’s custom tailoring. When The Wall came down, Schenk was 19 and freshly out of trade school. She took the opportunity to move to Berlin but didn’t stay long. “I was working as a tailor and was bored with it,” she recounted. “I felt—on an intellectual level—that it didn’t satisfy what I had imagined my life to be.” So in 1992 Schenk left to pursue an education in Chicago. She came to New York in 1998 and immediately fell back into fashion. “I learned here that I was good at it and that my education in Germany was really something special,” recalled Schenk. “I have a very different perspective on it now and actually find patternmaking intellectually challenging.”

In New York, Schenk ran ateliers for Helmut Lang and Karl Lagerfeld before opening Werkstatt in 2008. Her sample room has since become the go-to place for labels like Erin Fetherston and Cushnie et Ochs when they need someone to handle more elaborate or creative garments. “I think there is a place for my business in the marketplace, especially since what we’re doing is more than a t-shirt or a pair of plain pants,” Schenk said. “Once you get into more creative garments and as a designer wants more control over the creative process, it’s impossible to develop overseas.”

Watch the above slideshow for further insight into Werkstatt’s elaborate work.