SABINNA / PART 1

As most of you know I (Sabinna) study Fashion Design at Central Saint Martins in London. This year (well actually in less than a month!) I am graduating. Today I want to show you the photos of my graduate show and some previews of the look book. Soon you will get to see the full look book and also a bunch of other details. This collection is based on my mum's childhood in the communistic USSR and her everyday life as a kid/teenager. My mother used to be a professional athlete, so sports and uniforms play an important role in the research. Photos from the family archive, my mum's diary from the late 70s and some of her amazing stories about that time created the concept around my collection. Thanks to my amazing fabric sponsors I was able to create an ethical and organic collection. The PVC parts in the clothes and accessories are made of recycled plastic combined with a special method of melting fabric left overs into one piece of fabric. Also I want to say a HUGE thanks to all the amazing people that supported me through my time in CSM, especially the last year. Most of all David and my mum. And my great family, my awesome friend Scarlett, all my amazing sponsors, especially Antex and Schella Kann!

If you want to see more of the process and also follow my future work, make sure to check out my Instagram and my Facebook. Also you can see some of my previous work on my website.

SAMPLE SALE TIME LONDON

It's sample sale season! Which means that we are going crazy just by looking at all those amazing designer pieces with affordable red price tags on them. We have to admit that more than the half of both our wardrobes comes from sample sales in Paris or London. Today is the Browns Sample Sale, going on until 8pm, so if you are in London, drop by! The address is Music Rooms Space Events, 26 South Molton Lane, London, W1K 5LF. I (Sabinna) went this morning and left with these crazy and adroable and somehow also creepy pair of heels by Celine. Yes, I agree, those shoes are not for everyone, but don't worry there is stuff for all type of tastes. :)

If you can't make it today, no worries, we have some more sample sale tips for the following weeks:

REMEMBER WHEN ...

.. we went to Paris a while ago? It was a quick business trip to source fabrics for Sabinna's final collection. But also a business trip can be combined with pleasure, so here a few impressions from our little trip. By the way, we stayed in a very lovely hotel, called Hotel Josephine, that might be of interest to some of you who intend to travel to Paris any time soon. It's super duper tiny but very clean and quite. And the loction is not bad either, walk distance from Dare du Nord, very comfy when you come by Eurostar. :)

FROM A PAINTING - AMANDA BLAKE

It's 'From a painting' time! Believe me (Sabinna) when I say that I write this post with the last bits of energy that I have left as all of it was invested into my graduation collection at Central Saint Martins. The show is in less than 2 weeks and I am more than excited to see my designs on the catwalk. If you want to stay updated and see what happens in CSM, follow my Instagram.

So, now back to today's post: The painting is by Amanda Blake and we have chosen it because of the girl's face impression. There is just something about it that caught our attention and we decided to recreate this simple, but beautiful oil painting. 

SKETCH LONDON

Here in London, the afternoon tea is definitely as important as dinner is. So today we will tell you about a beautiful place located in the centre of London (not far from Picadilly circus) called Sketch. Let's start at the very beginning: This place was recommended to us by hundreds of different people, nevertheless we didn't manage to check it out in the past years. So when Sabinna's family came over for a visit we decided that it's about time to see if Sketch is actually as awesome as everyone says. We didn't make any reservations and were hoping that it will help to arrive before the actual afternoon tea starts. Unfortunately we were confronted with quite unfriendly and snoby attitude right at the door, telling us to come back in 30 minuted, as no tables were free at that moment. We have to admit, that it's nothing special in London to wait for a table, it happens all the time in a huge city like this. So we waited, hung out around the area and came back after half an hour. Same story again: Unhappy and unfriendly guy, still no table and our mood down to zero. 

This weekend we gave the restaurant/bar a second chance and returned again for a "cream tea". Again no reservation, but this time everything turned out differently. Not only we got a table straight away, this time we were lucky to be served by super friendly girls who knew exactly what they have to do. We ordered scones and tea, the scones didn't arrive at the same time and as an apology we were given extra scones and macaroons! Yes, we admit, this gave Sketch one million plus points and we were willing to forget the faux-pas from our first visit. So when you are in London, check out the place, we are sure you will love it. But we recommend to make a reservation in advance as you never know if you will experience our first or our second visit there. :)

Ps: You definitely have to go to the lou, as the toilets are a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Check picture number 1 and 6 (yes, we swear, that's the toilet! :) ). 

LUCKY FINDS

A while ago we wrote about the Burberry outlet in Hackney, London. We went there for the first time and have to admit that we got really lucky with our finds! Today we want to show you what we got and most important to tell you how much we spend. I (Sabinna) bought a suit (imagine how happy I was, I absolutely love suits and it's so hard to find the perfect one) and payed £29 for it, instead of £695! The price was so convincing that I even ignored the fact that it wasn't my size. So if you go there, make sure to try on everything, as the sizes vary a lot. I am a UK 8 and the suit is a UK 12, but it suits me perfectly, seriously, I have the felling it was made for me! :) David found this gorgeous jacket, that is a must have for the typical London weather. Strong wind and rain isn't a problem at all when you are wearing that beautiful dark blue piece. The first price for this jacket was £2,000 (insane!!) and it turned out that it was a show piece. The outlet price was £150, which is a very appropriate price for a jacket with this cut and perfect detailing. The burberry outlet is full of stuff, most of it is still too expensive and it's hard to find your size, but it's definitely worth checking it out, as you might be as lucky as we were. :)

ENGLAND SPECIAL - HASTINGS

Imagine a perfect little place, located right on the seaside, covered with beautiful hills and little houses. Imagine the smell of fresh food, sea and joy. Imagine Christmas, birthday and easter happening at the time - well now you know how Hastings feels! :) Hastings is only a short train ride away from London and is the perfect place to escape the busy city life. We discovered it through Sabinna's good friend Scarlett, who currently lives in Hastings. So the next time you come to London, make sure to plan a day outside the madness and recharge your batteries with fresh air, great food and perfect summer atmosphere (even in spring! :) ).

If you want to see more of England, we also recommend to check out Brighton, Oxford and Cambridge. We went there 2 years ago, can you remember our England special back then? :)

PLEASE EXPLAIN

In the past few months it was quite calm and silent here on the Broken Cookies planet and today we want to explain what exactly happened. As you know we are both in our final years at the moment, so David is having his final exams soon and is about to start his Master's dissertation with IBM (yes, it's pretty awesome! :) ). Sabinna already handed in her BA thesis and is now spending days and nights working out patterns, sewing samples, creating her own fabrics and putting all these bits and bobs together in order to come up with a final collection (only 5 weeks left until the show!! ). We know that you are used to more frequent content on our blog and we are truly sorry that we have been absent quite a lot. We hope that you aren't too upset with us, dear girls and boys and promise to keep you updated as much as possible on our exciting journeys through final years, especially on Facebook and Instagram. Sabinna has now another Instagram account for her fashion, so head over if you are curious. Also we have some major news for you, like super duper big, so stay tuned!!! And today we want to show you some sneak peeks of Sabinna's work. How do you like it?

FEELING LIKE A WIENKIND.

No matter how much we love living in London, we still miss Vienna a lot. It's a very special place for us: this is where we both grew up, where we met and fell in love. A while ago we were contacted by the Vienna-based jewellery designer Wienkind. She told us how she loves to take pictures of her favourite places in Vienna and then to transform those into beautiful jewellery pieces. We were intrigued and wanted to see them all! Sabinna picked a ring and a neckalce showing the Riesenrad, which is one of the first things she visited as a little kid, back then in the 90s, when she moved to Vienna. 

2 FAVS

Spring comes and with it the time to get out your favourite pieces for sunny weather. I have to admit I have troubles to say good-buy to my lovely vintage fake fur jacket, so I guess I might keep it until the summer will part us. Another piece that I currently love is this wonderful white leather bag by Vagabond via Sarenza. Perfect size, perfect shape - and obviously perfect colour. :) 

BURBERRY OUTLET LONDON

As you saw on Facebook, we went to the Burberry Outlet in London on Saturday. It is located in 29-31 Chatham Pl (London E9 6LP) and offers menswear, womenswear and accessories by Burberry Prosum, Burberry Brit and Burberry Sport. We have to admit that our expectations weren't that high. We thought that the discounts are not going to be that huge and that it will be very hard to find suitable sizes. On arrival we were surprised by the look of the outlet: It looks like an actual Burberry shop, everything is very organised, there is no sale or outlet feeling in the store. The first thing that we had to check out were the trench coats (what else! :) ). We found a lot of beautiful pieces but unfortunately not all of them fulfilled our discount wishes. But it's definitely worth it to take your time and dig for some treasures. After going through million of pieces we found a womenswear suit for £29 and a wonderful menswear jacket with the most amazing details. So we think that if you are in London any time soon, you should check the outlet out (let us know what you got! :) ). We are going to post soon the pieces that we bought, so stay tuned for that.

FROM A PAINTING - NAN LAWSON

We had a crazy week full of travels and work (see what we were up to on our Instagram). What is the best way to end such a wonderful and stressful week? Yes, a 'From a painting post'! Today is all about Nan Lawson and her cute illustration girl. Really love that green jumper and adorable blushes - a perfect every day look for Sabinna. Spice it up with a red clutch and some heels and voilà: perfect and comfy outfit is ready.

MEANWHILE IN LONDON

After all these years in wonderful London we are still busy discovering amazing new places! This weekend was a quite relaxing one - walks and restaurants during the day, parties in the evening. If you are in London any time soon, check out Dumplings's Legend in China Town and the new bar at Kimchee restaurant, both places are so worth visiting!

SABINNA

We spent the past 2 days and nights in front of our computer screens - why? Because we were working on my (Sabinna's) website! Finally I have a place to display my Central Saint Martins projects and some of my illustrations. I am currently working on my graduation collection, so make sure to follow my Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to be up to date! :) Oh, and head over to my brand new website and let us know what you think! David did an amazing job with the webdesign, didn't he? :)

GIVE AWAY / BLOG'N'BUZZ ACADEMY

This is a Give Away for all our Austrian readers! So we are going to switch to German for this post. :)

So, unsere lieben Österreichischen Leser, dieses Give Away ist speziell für euch! Eine/r von euch hat die Möglichkeit bei allen 4 Events der Blog'n'Buzz Academy teilzunehmen, und zwar gratis! Für alle, die mit diesem fantastischem Programm noch nicht vertraut sind, hier etwas mehr Informationen:

"Die blog n‘BUZZ Academy bietet 4 Know-how Events, auf denen nationale und internationale Speakers über Grundlagen und neue Trends im Bereich Blogging referieren, diskutieren oder Workshops abhalten.

Zusätzlich werden für kleine Gruppen On-Demand-Workshops zu Themen wie Fotografie oder Videoproduktion angeboten. Onlinekursangebote aus der Blogger Community runden das Angebot ab."

Wir verlosen das gesamte Package und werden mit der Hilfe vom Zufallsgenerator eine/n Gewinner/in auswählen. Der Teilnahmeschluss ist am 1.2.2014. Um teilzunehmen einfach einen Kommentar unter dem Post hinterlassen oder uns eine E-mail mit dem Betreff 'Blog'n'Buzz-Academy' schicken. Viel Glück!

FROM A PAINTING - KATY SMAIL

Today's 'From a painting' is inspired by an illustration by Katy Smail. Not only the the 2 colour lips inspired us, but also the wonderful flowers in this image, so we decided to recreate it. Mac lipsticks and Sabinna's Schella Kann sweater made a perfect match and here we go! 

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

Some photos have this magical ability to bring you back in time and give you the possibility to re-experience certain moments of your life. We have a million photos like that and we love love love looking through them and go back in time. For the past 7 years, we shared our best moments in life with each other and we are looking forward to create more awesome memories in the future. Let's take a little trip down memory lane and check out the years 2008-2011. 

FROM A PAINTING - MALCOLM LIEPKE

Thank you, dear girls and boys, for sending us so many amazing From a painting suggestions. We already started to pick and recreate some of them, but don't hesitate to keep them coming, we can never have enough. Today's From a painting is inspired by the American artist Malcolm Liepke and was sent to us by our German reader Lena (thank you, Lena! :) ). Red lips, white shirt and the perfect smell - all I need for a Sunday. :) We are now back in London and are sinking in an ocean full of work. Christmas is definitely over, so are the holidays. No choice, so we are ready for 2014! :) 

SCHELLA KANN, VIENNA AND OTHER LOVE STORIES

Everything amazing comes to an end - just like our stay in Vienna. It's time for us to head back to London and get back to work. As always we had an absolutely fantastic time here, thank you Vienna for being such a babe! We chilled, ate, partied, spent time with our families and of course we shopped. A lot of you frequently ask us where we like to shop in Vienna. So in this post we decided to show you our favourite Austrian designer Schella Kann. Before Sabinna moved to London to study Fashion Design at Central Saint Martins, she worked for Schella Kann in Vienna. Since then we are both head over heels in love with that brand. The quality of her clothes is fantastic and as Sabinna worked there, we can tell you that there is real passion behind every single piece of clothes. You can find her store in the first district of Vienna in Spiegelgasse 15. It's a beautiful and modern black and white store filled with fashion treasures. At the moment they are having some sale items in store, so hurry before it's too late! Ok, lovelies, we still need to pack, time to say good-bye Vienna! And hello London! :)

FROM A PAINTING - TALI YALONETZKI

It's time for the first post in 2014! Happy new year, lovelies! And thank you for still being around. :) This year we decided to focus more on our special "From a painting", so be prepared for an overload of outfits that are inspired by paintings/illustrations. If you just joined us, no worries, you can catch up here and see what you missed in 2013. :) 

Today's painting of desire is by the great Tali Yalonetzki. We really like her work, it has a very special style, which is very different to all our previous "From a painting" inspirations.