On the morning start

We have a dog who needs a run every morning, so I normally take him early for a walk/run across Hackney Marshes, Victoria Park, or the Olympic Village. He always gets breakfast first and then we make a coffee, sit down as a team, chat and make a plan for the day — what garments need to be worked on, what patterns need to be made and depending on the time in the season, we are either designing and discussing a new collection or developing the sample collection or planning production.

Finding the perfect space in East London

We knew the building already and dreamed of this type of space for quite a while. It is a simple industrial concrete square room, but has glass on both the north and south sides and is on the 5th floor. This gives us the thing we cherish the most — natural daylight from enough angles that strong shadows are not made and we can work for most of the year without artificial studio light. As our collection has grown, we tried to keep sensible and stay in our old studio for as long as possible. We managed a year longer in the smaller space waiting for the right unit to come along, the patience paid off and we moved in March. We can now work on several paper patterns at the same time, (cutting tables take up space!) and have a temporary kind of studio shop we set up when we have time in the season.

Materials that shape the environment

We always use material and fabric as a wall, a changing room, a curtain to hide chaos and calm, or simply room dividers. Working with so many natural and raw fibre fabrics means that we always have a light ecru available, this is used together with the white painted floor and walls as a consistent aesthetic through all our workspaces.

Simon's favourite spot

The corner next to the printer where the dog sleeps on a giant cushion, he is always happy to have a cuddle or stroke and projects a warm, calm energy.

Objects that hold memory

We have always spent free time at flea markets, we even take the team with us if they are up for the early start. Whenever we travel or go on holiday the first thing we check are flea markets and secondhand/antique stores. The found object we have in our studio help project the mood of how we are feeling, they are changed and moved around, they definitely look random and sometimes a bit obscure but make total sense to us. Depending on the colours and textures of the collection, as the clothes change the objects change too. We found an amazing ancient coat and from the same guy bought a large wooden mushroom, the coat provided inspiration for design silhouette and garment construction, and the mushroom felt right placed next to the collection.

The object we use the most is a cargo parachute made from cotton. It's huge and can create a room inside a room or the backdrop for our photoshoots. We found it ages ago but it still feels right, and due to the nature of the patchwork and seams, it keeps on providing inspiration and fresh angles.

On balancing temperaments

Sono (Stephanie) grew up in Germany so the workspace and studio is clearly defined, focussed and functional, I grew up in London which can be more spontaneous, random, chaotic. The studio is a good balance of this.

Rituals that ground the work

We still insist on doing a lot of manual tasks ourselves—cutting fabric, paper patterns, technical garment construction sheets. We always report to each other and check each other's work, it's a further extension of the design process and this bouncing back and forth keeps us grounded. Every decision is considered—we have to feel the fabric, physically unroll it, wrap it around ourselves, try on and wear every prototype, and kind of live in it. We both notice different elements and have different sensitivities, and need to know every piece inside and out.

The rhythm of a perfect day

It starts with all deliveries arriving on time, without any problems, no dealing with tracking numbers or couriers. Good weather with little cloud and lots of sunshine. A chance to review the collection and discuss, I think this is always hard to make enough time for, but SONO is an ongoing conversation between Sono and myself. The design process itself is a back and forward discussion between us, what we are passionate about and inspired by that day. This conversation also involves the team—it is important to work with people whose opinions you really respect. Their viewpoint and approach is way more important than experience. This helps us evolve and keep things fresh.

Soundtracks in studio

We listen to our seasonal mixes a lot, but sometimes we need something harder to work to — usually whatever our teenage daughters are playing at home. They're 15 and have completely different tastes. Liv is a hardcore Turnstile fan, and I've taken her to a few of their concerts, including one last week. It's great music for packing or pattern cutting. Luna is a super fan of Blood Orange and saw him with Sono (Stephanie) last week. He's so talented and his range makes him perfect for quieter studio moments.

Day to day, we often listen to Dean Blunt, he grew up on the estate opposite the studio. Same goes for King Krule, Mo Kolours, and Valentina Magaletti, a friend and genius percussionist. With Cafe OTO around the corner, we're always discovering great obscure records.

More positive popular teenage influence has also brought in MK Gee and Geese. When we need to concentrate, it's piano from Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou or Duval Timothy. Late afternoons often return to the comfort of a '90s hiphop playlist, we listen the most to Biz Markie, J Dilla, MF Doom, Mos Def/Yasin Bey. I could go on, but that's probably enough!

Lessons they carry forward

Yes, I believe every designer builds their own company in their own reflection. Lots of people deny this but I have found it rings true. Habits, daily work flow, lunch break, and how the team interact with each other, are more often than not exactly how the boss behaves, just in a ripple effect. After 20 years in other studios where you are essentially hanging out at someone else's space, both Sono and I learnt what our core work values are and how we want the team we work with to interact.

Working in Paris is very different and what I learnt the most from Christophe (Lemaire) is the value of lunch. He makes a habit of always eating out in a restaurant and our conversation subjects always changed the moment we left the building. At lunch, you have the chance to ask questions that might feel out of place in the studio, but returning back in the afternoon was way more focused and constructive. He taught me the confidence to slow down, rest, refresh and refocus. In fashion this is really rare, there always seems an urgent deadline that can't wait and lunchtime is simply in the way.

We have a lunch table and chairs — that's its only purpose in the studio and we all sit down as a team for an hour to eat together and afterwards enjoy a coffee. The table and chairs are made of an early fibreglass composite from 1964, by Helmut Bätzner for Bofinger Germany. Sono bought them at a flea market 25 years ago. They have moved from Hamburg to London and been painted white, repainted black, sanded and now repainted in a Tuscan clay shade. They have been in several apartments and gardens over the years but now feel at home in our studio. We try to go out for lunch as a team once a week still, but having a kitchen at work makes it easy to stay in!

The places they return to

We have many friends who are either artists or industrial designers and also local to East London. We end up often hanging out in their studios. If you like and respect their work, their workplace always feels warm and comfortable. Aside from that, we have a few close bookstores to us that stock rare, unusual and out-of-print art, design, photography, counterculture books. We also go to a few geeky record stores.