What is Sonson?
Son = red, Son = lipstick, a little feminine and graceful. Son = lucky. Son = deep red. Sồn Sồn = fertile (wish to "give birth" to many beautiful, useful and environmentally friendly products). Sometimes there is also a little Sồn Sồn.
Sonson currently has three members: Linh, Mien and Hang. We and a former partner (Chi) met during the Covid period. In 2020, that historic date opened a new chapter and marked the beginning of Sonson. We designed the interior collection Goc Tinh Tai, won first prize at the Vietnam Design Week competition and continued to make and experiment with contemporary and sustainable homeware products. Slowly until July 2021 - in the middle of the Covid epidemic - we launched Collective Sonson.
Images of the Stillness Corner Collection provided by the character
Though and Rest balance
Linh’s productive day is about 3-4 hours of focused and effective work. Specifically, it means spending time free-writing as soon as she wakes up (instead of lying in bed trying to sleep), doing 45-60 minutes of yin or hatha yoga, having breakfast and starting to sit at the desk by 9am. If I’m at home, I’ll look at the trees around the house before getting to work, and tell myself how lucky I am!
When I was young, my mother worked at a handicraft import-export company. I remember playing with rattan baskets and sedge baskets, and taking a nap on the clothes in my mother's office. Surprisingly and not coincidentally, when I started Collective Sonson, I realized that the dream of making art with handmade elements had been nurtured since then.
Creativity is a source of joy and also work for me. Linh and the team founded and maintained Sonson first and foremost with the desire for members to have a playground to satisfy and experiment with ideas. So the work is not hard but on the contrary, very interesting. The best and most unique ideas often originate from a casual saying at the dinner table, when elegantly watching the moon and enjoying wine, or from trips to the mountains and the sea...
Khi có Sonson, mình có nhiều cơ hội chia sẻ và sáng tạo những thứ mình đã luôn mong muốn được làm trước đây mà chưa dám. Thiết kế đồ nội thất, nhuộm tự nhiên, các sản phẩm mới có concept độc đáo, thậm chí mạnh dạn tái định nghĩa lại chữ “truyền thống”… Mình luôn chia sẻ về Sonson với nhiều sự tự hào, được làm điều mình thích, cho điều mình tin, với người mình yêu quý. Khó khăn trên đường đi thì rất nhiều, nhưng kim chỉ nam về những điều đúng đắn ấy luôn hướng mình đi tới. Tuy nhiên, có những thứ bắt tay vào làm mới thấm. Ví dụ như hai chữ “bền vững” trước khi làm sản phẩm thì mang đầy tính lãng mạn, một niềm tin vào điều hay điều đúng, phân biệt rành mạch có lợi - có hại, nhưng tới lúc làm sản phẩm hướng tới bền vững, Linh nhận ra mọi thứ chỉ mang tính tương đối. Với mình, Bền Vững trong sản xuất/ thiết kế là biết đủ, biết cân đối giữa số lượng và khả năng tái tạo, biết tôn trọng thiên nhiên và không quá cực đoan với bất cứ thái cực nào.
“Sustainability” in production/design means knowing enough, knowing how to balance quantity and recyclability, knowing how to respect nature and not being too extreme with any extreme.
The most "difficult" moment for me was when I tried to commercialize a product that was artistic and conceptual, but still immature in production - that was the Screen Set of Static Corner. Not finding anyone who could dye the fabric as required, we took the trouble to go to Sapa to dye it ourselves and then went to the city to work hard to make the frame. We ordered the frame from Da Nang but when we received it in Hanoi, the paint color was ruined, we sanded each one ourselves, repainted it from the beginning step by step, working and learning at the same time, sadly accepting the reality that wood and indigo cannot be 100% natural. While producing this screen set, one person got Covid, one person was busy with personal matters, one person had trouble in their relationship... personal matters - public matters were entangled with each other while we had promised to deliver the goods to the customer. Each of us had our own circumstances but had to persevere to get through that "high tide". I remember the days when I drove 20km alone to the only wood workshop that would accept us, worked with the workers and anxiously waited for the results… in the end, we got it done, but learned a lesson for life!
fun but hard!
Good story, beautiful ideal, great connection... but that is only part of the long journey to find the balance between indigenous products and practicality when commercializing products. If choosing natural materials (cotton, linen...) is difficult, Collective Sonson makes it even more difficult by choosing to collaborate with craft villages, finding traditional materials with modernity, aiming for sustainable design in packaging and transportation... When achieving most of these criteria in a product, it means we have to accept high costs and have not optimized the supply chain due to the handmade and small-scale nature of the order. Ms. A can spontaneously refuse to dye this batch of scarves because of family matters, it is the planting season... Mr. B can "spontaneously" change his own design because "that's how it looks!" and hundreds of handmade materials are wrong, defective, moldy...
However, we still love what we are doing even though we admit there are many shortcomings and also hope to soon find more like-minded companions.
plan for this year
Balance Rest and Think
Find a Great Sales Persona
Learn to Say No and Launch a Collection About Consensus
Learn to Say Yes and Launch a Collection That Makes Buyers Say Yes.
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Ms Linh is wearing Kendo Pants, Bug Dress, New Moon Top, Kiki Skirt
*Learn about and order Collective Sonson products on their website or buy directly at TimTay Store - Phu My Hung, District 7, Saigon.
Interviewer : Hoàng Anh
Photographer: Thanh Tiến
