This Label is Reinventing the Caftan in the Age of Quarantine. US VOGUE
Erin Kleinberg’s world was turned upside down in early March. Her beloved grandmother Sidia passed away, and shortly thereafter, the U.S. entered into the early phases of quarantine as COVID-19 began to spread. Kleinberg, who cofounded the closet style website Coveteur a decade ago and the creative agency Métier Creative in 2015, was facing an unknown future. Compounding her grief, she had to reorganize her small business, tackling the challenges that many small companies have been facing during the pandemic.
Four months later, Métier Creative is thriving and Kleinberg is putting another passion project into motion. In 2019, she began working on a new fashion label she called Out of Office, “a quippy, lighthearted brand” featuring a range of loungewear. During quarantine, Kleinberg and her team crafted a new narrative around the concept, one that focused on ease, simplicity, and comfort—all of the things that Kleinberg and her colleagues were craving. She wanted the brand to be so simple it would revolve around one single product.
Today, Kleinberg is relaunching the label under the name Sidia, a tribute to her very stylish grandmother. The collection consists of lightweight cotton, Tencel, linen, and viscose caftans, all available for $160 and cut in the same style, but featuring different prints and colorways, including leopard, stripes, and earthy, organic shades of blush, green, and black. The idea, according to Kleinberg, was to create a versatile wardrobe staple that represents the recent rise in popularity of what she and others are calling “the comfort economy.”
“Our Sidia caftans allow women to embody a loungy flow and airiness in their daily dress, while still looking pulled together and chic,” Kleinberg says. “I believe that the post-COVID era will be one of renewal, simplicity, less excess, and a return to minimal dressing and less fast fashion all around. As a brand, our mission is to create items that you can really live with.”
The caftans are not fully sustainably made yet, according to Kleinberg, but she is using recyclable packaging, producing them in small batches, and working with fabrics created in Oeko-Tex certified mills, which means that the pieces are made without any harmful chemicals. Kleinberg’s ultimate goal is to create a lifestyle brand that is both holistically ethical and equitable.
Kleinberg is planning to form partnerships with organizations that aid those suffering from intergenerational trauma; her grandmother survived the Holocaust by hiding in an orphanage. “With Sidia, our goal is to impart change on a personal level,” Kleinberg notes. “At our core, our desire is to inspire women to integrate their full selves and stories in ways that allow them to transcend past traumas and ground more purposefully in their present.” Soon to come on the Sidia website is a Stories tab that will include profiles, editorials, and essays highlighting a range of women working in various mediums. First, Kleinberg is excited to speak about her own journey in the hopes that it will inspire others to pursue their own ambitions—and to do so dressed as comfortably as possible. “I have my Sidia’s story, which I have been calling on since she passed in order to inspire me and keep me moving and enjoy the full potential of life,” says Kleinberg. “We are at the forefront of a new time where the stories of everyday individuals need to be shared, seen, and affirmed.”