Label to Love — Von Sono

To visit the Sono studio is a heartening lesson in how a small label can quietly flourish. The light bright East London space is filled with orderly boxes of orders on their way to California, Brooklyn, Tokyo and rural Massachusetts (a store close to the Harvard campus). Many more would like to join that list but rather than expand their business to satisfy new demand, Sono know when to pause. Restraint and sustainability – in all its meanings – are at the heart of the brand.

Stephanie ‘Sono’ Oberg and Simon Homes are the couple behind it – German-born Oberg has a cool girl energy in her Sono Salem skirt with rope fastening, furry sliders and Mike Kelley T-shirt, while British Homes, with long hair falling down his Sono shirt, has the mellow outlook of someone who spends a lot of time outside. If Oberg began a version of the label – Von Sono, or ‘from Sono’ in German – in 2003, Homes came on board in 2020, after he had spent 13 years working for Paul Smith (the two have also consulted for Lemaire and The Row). “You were looking for a partner, and I finally agreed to work for you,” he says, with a wink. They dropped the ‘von’ on the Fergus ‘Palace Triferg’ Purcell designed logo, and this incarnation of Sono was born.

The duo work with factories in Tottenham and in France – at a factory they came across while working with The Row. “[The factory owner] said ‘if you ever want to do it, I’ll make it for you’,” says Homes. “It’s insanely expensive, and we have terrible profit margin, but he makes [things] beautifully.”

If Homes is now involved, the brand retains the principles that Oberg established – around production that is traceable, factories that treat their staff well and fabric that is less harmful to the planet and people. “All these rules came and now we’re actually quite happy about it, because they make decision making easier,” says Oberg. “There isn’t an option for polyester and there isn’t an option for non organic cotton,” continues Homes. “We have to think ‘that’s a great idea but we just can’t do that, that’s just not our thing.”‘

These principles might guide the background of the brand, but Sono also make really nice clothes. See the most recent collection which includes great tailoring, outerwear, wear-on-repeat sweaters like the Jakp and shirts. The ability to tick both these boxes puts them in a sweet spot – one with appeal across different takes on fashion: “A new buyer came in from Sweden [to their Paris showroom] and I was telling them what we don’t do,” says Homes. “He said ‘that’s your personal opinion on stuff but I wanted to come in here and buy great clothes, and you’ve got great clothes.’”

Homes and Oberg live in Stoke Newington with their teenage twin daughters and commute to their Broadway Market studio every day, with saluki dog Zuki in tow. The studio is a hushed atmosphere of creativity, with time made for coffee and flaky local pastries. For Homes, it contrasts with his previous working routine in Big Fashion. “I lived years of a complete mismatched life of contradictions – shopping at a farmers’ market, caring very much about what we bought and ate, especially having young kids at the time, going camping, and then Monday morning a car picks you up and you’re off to the airport to a glamorous, cashmere-clad world of dripping luxury,” he says. Fastforward to now and “there is no disconnect between our personal life, our personal wardrobe, and what we do as a company. It all feels like it’s one.” Maybe that is also why Sono feels so right.