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A book by
Sophia Lewis

Dear

Doris

CLOSED Dear Doris
Photo: Maria Grossmann
CLOSED Dear Doris

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Dear Doris is a hard cover book with 220 pages, published by ZS Verlag. The English version will follow soon.

Sophia Lewis has been a womenswear designer at Closed for over 20 years. When the world froze in the pandemic last year, she found herself taken back to her childhood in rural Wales: there was nothing to do! As a child, she spent a lot of time with her grandmother Doris in the kitchen. And that’s exactly where she spent hours and days during the first lockdown in Hamburg – this time with her 17-year-old daughter Gwenifer. Unlike back then, instead of butter, refined sugar and wheat flour, the two mixed their cake batter using coconut milk, natural sweeteners and buckwheat flour, reinterpreting Doris’ recipes in a modern, healthier and more eco-conscious way. From date cake to chocolate-coated bliss balls and rustic rye bread, all of their recipes are vegan.

CLOSED Dear Doris

A couple of months later, Sophia decided to put them in a cookbook: Dear Doris will be published in November 2021. And Dear Doris is so much more than a cookbook. It’s Sophia’s tribute to her grandmother, full of personal memories, anecdotes and humour. She not only shares insights into her childhood in Wales and youth as a fashion student in London, but also talks about her everyday life as a fashion designer at Closed. We asked Sophia a few questions about the book.

CLOSED Dear Doris
CLOSED Dear Doris
Photo: Maria Grossmann
CLOSED Dear Doris
CLOSED Dear Doris
CLOSED Dear Doris
Photo: Maria Grossmann

Can you explain the book in a couple of sentences?
I tried to make a cross between Downton Abbey, Notting Hill, and The Devil Wears Prada and turned it into a cookbook – traditional British baking made vegan. It is not just a cookbook – it’s full of humour and if you’re interested in fashion you can have a fly-on-the-wall experience of working in a design office. In a nice design office – not like The Devil Wears Prada! !

All the recipes in the book are vegan, many are also free from refined sugar and grain-free. Were you always interested in healthy food?
It all started a couple of years ago when my daughter and I visited my father in summer, who was 77 years old at the time. He suffered from arthritis, was in pain but the medicine was not really working and he was frustrated. I suggested a detox, which I do regularly, to give him a small ray of hope. Only fruit and vegetables – no coffee, sugar, grains or dairy products. He did have a small amount of meat, as going completely vegan was too much for him. The first and second days were awful for him, but after a week he started to feel better and after two weeks, 90 per cent of the pain was gone. This journey prompted Gwenifer and me to start to look further into food and its effect on our body. Gwenifer was always the big baker and used to bake with Doris when she was still alive. Since this experience with my father, she is into healthy baking.

CLOSED Dear Doris
Photo: Maria Grossmann

You write in the book that being a designer also means being able to see the beauty in mistakes. A beautiful spelling mistake happened to you while writing: “planet-based” instead of “plant-based” – which perfectly incorporates your philosophy of respecting nature and your own body. Could you explain a bit more about this thought?
I approach cooking and baking as I approach fashion. Fashion is a constant update – nothing is ever the same. We work with the seasons, look at micro and macro trends, and assess social behaviour. Why don’t we work with food the same way? Our social conditions have changed a lot, we work digitally and are sitting all the time, under a constant adrenaline rush. We need to assess and adapt our diet so that our bodies can cope. The environment is also changing. A vegan diet is one of the steps everyone can take to lower their carbon footprint. It is all interlinked – changing the way we eat means being more up to date with how we live. And speaking of mistakes: I’m very bad at spelling. I never thought I could write a book. You don’t have to be good at the technical part when you have the ideas. Just try it. It’s the same with changing your diet. You don’t have to change everything at once. Try doing it gradually and see how you feel.

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