Time stops when I embroider.

No street noise, no phone time, no TV, just me, my upcycling project, and the soft swish of a needle passing through fabric. It wasn’t always like this.

My name is Ceci Cholst Zeichner. I’m a fashion designer in New York City, so I’m no stranger to the hustle and bustle of a creative industry. However, like so many of us working women, I just could not get used to the last-minute changes that made days or weeks of work worthless, managers forcing one person to do the work of three people thanks to budget cuts, or the revolving door of fellow co-workers trying to find greener pastures in an industry that prioritizes speed over craft. I, like so many others in so many industries, felt like a faded scrap of fabric–worn from use but still strong, still beautiful, still valuable.

The fashion industry is difficult to change, where no amount of work is too much because “you’re lucky to be there”, but there are a few things we can all do as individuals: take a breath, take steps towards a slower way of life, and take a stand against throwaway culture. 

As one of the top polluting industries in the world, the fashion industry’s biggest impact is from the waste it creates.. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (link opens in new tab), the fashion industry creates about 720 million pounds of textiles a year. As customers are pushed to buy more and more new clothing at faster rates, ¾ of these textiles end up rotting away in a landfill. Mindless consumption is an ongoing crisis. 

There is so much that needs to change on a collective level, which can feel hopeless, but change starts at the individual level when we dedicate ourselves to creating mindful moments every day. I had started embroidering during the pandemic as a “quiet” hobby I could pursue and it quickly became a daily mindfulness practice. I soon realized I could combine my passion for beautiful design, my love for embroidery, and my concern for our planet’s future: Pochoir.NYC was born. We are  a company that helps people unleash their creativity, cultivate sustainable practices, and appreciate the labor that goes into our clothes. 

What Does Pochoir Mean?

Our name is French for “stencil,” referring to an old method of illustration where Pochoiristes, predominantly women artists, used stencils to meticulously hand color black and white fashion illustrations, resulting in images that were at once mass produced yet one of a kind. These illustrations were then bound into limited-edition fashion magazines for the elite.

Pochoir.NYC provides stencils for your creativity. We may send you all of the supplies and colors you need but it is up to you to design your piece and fill it in with your colors, your personality. Turn your mass produced wardrobe into works of art.