Sabinne clothes, the practical side of glamour: interview with the Romanian designer behind the brand 

It is always interesting to meet young designers. Not because they have beautiful and cool clothes in their collection, but because they have a fresh perspective over the fashion world, they have a strong sense of responsibility to the planet, a new eye on shapes & cuts and a totally different perspective on feelings that are responsible for creating a new collection. Today, I talked with Sabina Georgescu, the designer behind Sabinne brand, about fashion today, minimalism and practical side of glam clothes. 

#FashionTrend #Interview #RomanianDesigner #Sustenability #English

Sabinne pieces could be found on… www.sabinne.com, Studio SABINNE (Aleea Arinii Dornei 9), Galeria Galateca, www.neogalateca.ro, www.dichisar.ro/sabinne. 
Sabina Georgescu is on Instagram at @sabina_georgescu; @s.a.b.i.n.n.e. 

Your love story with fashion has started with…

My love/hate story with fashion. I love fashion, I am not so passionate about the ”industry”. I think the first thing that appealed to me were the fashion magazines my mom used to collect, that glamour and the outfits that were so different than what we would normally wear. In my family, all the women that I felt close to were into fashion. Actually, they were into sustainable fashion, as we would call it today. My grandmother had two suits, several tops and two evening gowns. Her minimalistic wardrobe dictated her entire style and she was always the best dressed lady wherever we went. She always mentioned that you don’t need a lot of clothes to be well dressed, but you do need to be neat and clean at all times and make sure you have the propper accessories.

My mom on the other hand was very into versatile outfits, she always chose quality fabrics and as a mathematics professor, she knew how to make her own patterns and she would take them to the tailors and have special dresses made for her. I was probably influenced by both of them in the sense that I too have a minimalistic wardrobe and only a few colours that I normally choose to wear, but I do like to experiment with shapes and volumes and I believe attitude is part of the outfit.

You say that you believe fashion can be practical and magical at the same time. Why did you add this “practical”? 

I think the ”practical” can be translated into sustainable. Just as I mentioned before, I do not own a lot of clothes, I do not believe in status-shopping, I customise everything and take the labels off my items, because I am wearing myself and my clothes are a part of who I am, they are part of the message I am communicating. I like statement pieces, out-of-the-box elements and classic cuts, so… magic and practicality! I would never wear something that doesn’t allow me to be my own personal self. 

The moodboard for your 2023 collection is all about… 

My 2023 Jezebel collection launched on Lovers Day – February 24th. It is about a type of love that almost no one speaks about or admits to – that toxic unreasonable love you cannot do without, that feverish, consuming love. My muse is an insolent rebel, addictive to the bone. So my moodboard was: dark eyeshadow, Debbie Harry, ”punk’s not dead”, latex, pills and red roses.

Sustainability is now a concept more often used. What is your view about this concept and how it can be identified in your collections? 

Sustainability starts within. It is a mind-set. I personally have practiced this all my life, in every aspect of it. I do not like to waste things, I like to re-use things, I prefer to buy high quality things that are maybe a little more expensive but last longer. I am not into trends. I think they are just a marketing tool and real personal style is defined over time and is comprised of elements from multiple trends or time frames.

Sustainability for SABINNE means: using natural fabrics from trust-worthy ethical sources, reducing waste, reusing left-over fabrics in creative ways, up-cycling and recycling pieces that have not sold over time, creating outstanding pieces that stand the test of time. It also means the correct price for the correct amount of work and the respect for decent labour conditions. By using natural fabrics, we prolong the life of garments and encourage our clients to buy locally and support small creative businesses. We do not use treatments that can affect the fabrics or the environment.

The icon piece that will always be in your collections… 

The jacket! Because it’s so iconic. 🙂 I like complex pieces and the jacket is very intricate, the process of actually making a jacket is quite difficult and there are a lot of steps involved. I keep investigating shapes and volumes, playing with certain cuts, getting creative with accessories, it never ends, and I love it!

The biggest challenge for a designer nowadays is… 

Keeping sane. Being able to live off of what they create and being able to think and express themselves freely. 

The impossible collection that you would like to make would look like this… 

There is no such thing as impossible. With the right amount of support anything can get done. Alien fashion?

We need fashion in our life because… 

What would we do without it? Even people who claim they don’t believe in fashion use it every day, so this notion that fashion is obsolete is not convincing.

What is next? 

The next fashion chapter for Sabinne will be about up-cycling, the project is already in the making and there will also be some art projects coming your way, but they will be revealed when the time comes.

About you, Sabina, we should know… 

I’m here to stay. 

Photography: Răzvan Mihalachi @mihalachirazvan.  
(The photographies were taken at Galateca – the exhibition Diaphane, Mariea Petcu Chioibaș, on display.)

Photography – for lookbook Jezebel: model: Diana Simota @dianasimota; photography: Remus Nicolaescu @remusn).