Edun (Q2987)
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brand of clothing
- EDUN
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Edun |
brand of clothing |
|
Statements
2005
co-founder
creative director
2013
1 reference
1 reference
In Nairobi, Kenya, you’re only as awesome as yourboda boda. This is the phrase used to describe motorcycle taxis, which locals have become accustomed to tricking out with brightly colored paint, beadwork, reflectors, and other types of customization. The wilder and crazier your wheels are, the more stylish you are considered among those in the community. At today’s Edun presentation for Fall 2018, aboda bodastood front and center in a pristine art gallery space. It was painted a pastel pink with abstract lettering and symbols covering its surfaces. It also came with a woven seat cover and long strands of beads hung from each handlebar—the ride was fierce. Walking into the main room of the gallery, it became clear that the details decking out the bike were the same as those on Edun’s latest wares, and they were just as eye-catching. At the center of the room, models stood on a round platform that was constructed to mimic the egg-like shape that has informed the label’s now-signature hardware on zippers and bag handles. The walls around them were lined with lookbook photographs as well, all shot in various locations around the city of New Orleans. Everywhere you looked there was one desirable Edun garment after the next: the denim ensemble featuring hand-beaded fringe, the miniskirt made from Ugandan vegan bark leather, the trenchcoat stamped with the bike’s custom alphabet mudcloth print.In the corner of the room was a display of jewelry, too. The red and magenta bead necklaces and bracelets were made in partnership with Kazuri Beads in Kenya, which currently employs over 300 women who make custom jewelry and ceramics using local clay. The Edun team’s dedication to sustainability and its work with artisans in Africa is incredibly impressive. For Fall, it continues its collaborations with the Ethical Fashion Initiative in Burkina Faso and Weavers Worth in Kenya. Also impressive is the fact that Edun remains without a single design figurehead. It operates with a design team and, of course, with creative input from founder Ali Hewson. Though there are many cooks in the kitchen, whether that kitchen is in Africa or the U.S., Edun continues to churn out astutely chic collections with focused through lines. Its ready-to-wear is fairly straightforward—wearable outerwear, comfortable trousers and shirting, easy dresses.
But when inspired by its journeys through Africa and crafted by the men and women who live there, the Edun wardrobe becomes something truly special.
15 February 2018
Edun has some new digs. Earlier today, the label’s founder, Ali Hewson, was showing off its debut retail space in the heart of Soho. It officially opens tomorrow, and as such, Hewson, CEO Julien Labat, and their team will switch out the Spring 2018 collection they’ve been showing to editors with the current, ready-to-sell Fall wares. If all goes well, it will attract first-time customers, Edun loyalists, and those still on the fence and encourage them to buy. The brick-and-mortar outpost is the next big leap for a sustainable clothing business that has managed to evolve over the past several seasons without a single designer at its helm. The amorphous design team is making beautiful clothes, and for the most part, it’s Hewson and Labat relaying the message and bigger picture to the public and fashion community. The store, in a way, represents a more personal component of Edun or a sort of touchstone for customers who aren’t traveling around Africa to meet the artisans who provide the company’s fabrics, materials, and design techniques. In that well-appointed space in Soho, people can really understand what Edun is and how it gives back.Shoppers will also get a more intimate look at the impressive clothes. Texture and detailing are such important parts of Edun’s aesthetic, and though visitors to the shop will have to wait a bit to see Spring 2018 on the shelves, they should start getting excited about it now. The collection, made primarily in Nairobi, was even more refined and sophisticated than the last, with covetable macramé and beaded bags, a denim jacket embroidered with a woven panel made partially from recycled shoelaces, and a trenchcoat printed with a special pink and yellow wax batik. The pared-back Lurex weave from Burkina Faso was alluring on a wide-leg trouser and vest set. If the design team at Edun could rethink one thing, it might be to do away with the use of the logo, which was shown this season on a beaded T-shirt and last season on pants, shorts, jackets, and more. This is a brand that doesn’t need to play into the ever-popular logomania fixation in fashion.Other than the lovely clothes on the racks, the Edun store will also sell books, ceramics, and rugs made by its close-knit vendors and craftspeople in Africa. It seems as though Hewson and Labat are gearing up to take Edun into the lifestyle category, but for now, they’re moving cautiously. The Spring offering is smarter and more sophisticated than the last.
It represents a move forward for Edun into new territory, which, for now at least, is on a bustling street in downtown Manhattan.
12 September 2017
Entering another season without a head designer, Edun’s CEO Julien Labat was wildly optimistic about the future, and from a first glance at the happy Fall collection, it wasn’t difficult to see why. This season, the brand’s elusive design collective drew inspiration for textures and hues from the contemporary artist Mickalene Thomas and her eccentric, multilayered photographs in the book Muse. As always, the clothes were crafted in partnership with several different organizations throughout Africa, including the Ethical Fashion Initiative in Burkina Faso and designer Carole Nevin in South Africa. This season, Edun also initiated new partnerships with a Kenyan weaving co-op and a company called Johanna Bramble Créations in Senegal.While many sustainable fashion labels are often defined by a tone that feels overtly earthy—especially those with no singular vision at the helm—Edun has always had a unique point of view, and this season it was moving in an independent direction. Color was key, with dynamic shades of Thomas-esque teal, orange, marigold, and green washed over pieces like a slinky cut-out dress, a striking overcoat, and an exaggerated chunky knit turtleneck. While the color-blocking created a chic and cheerful vibe, the love was definitely in the details. For example, the graphic floating yarn weave on a pullover sweater came courtesy of Johanna Bramble. There was also hand-printed zebra leather from South Africa that was used for a high-waisted A-line skirt and a thin puffer coat designed with a traditional African print textile and recycled aluminum hardware.Bodysuits, minidresses, and cropped jackets gave the sustainable line a street-inspired mood, as did the sculptural top-handle bags made with the recycled aluminum found adorning the clothes and constructed in Kenya with a bold whipstitch technique. With the same ethical brand ethos, Edun seems to be targeting a more contemporary, artfully minded woman at the moment. If they can keep up this lively vision, they’ll be making their philanthropic fashion, with or without a head creative in charge, for many seasons to come.
13 February 2017
Before it was trendy for designers to slap words likesustainable,eco-conscious, andethicalon their labels (without necessarily being able to back them up), Edun was churning out entire collections of responsible, made-in-Africa clothes. Each season, the brand—which launched in 2005 and is now led by an internal design team—seems to hit new milestones: For instance, for Pre-Fall, CEO Julien Labat confirmed that 50 percent of the fabrics were custom made by African artisans, while the remaining half still met the label’s high sustainability standards. Embellishments are a new focus for Edun, and those were made by the artisans, too, like hand-beaded knits from Madagascar and embroidered skirts from Rwanda.On Edun’s sleek, vaguely ’70s silhouettes, those fabrics and add-ons are what draw you in. Next to a Lurex-flecked checkerboard fabric from an artisan collective in Burkina Faso was super-dry, raw Moroccan denim supported by the Better Cotton Initiative, which is dedicated to reducing cotton’s impact on the environment with fewer chemicals and an improved supply chain. There was also a lot of contrast between the plush felt pants, metallic leather jackets, and wavy pleated silk dresses in coral and raspberry—for every crafty texture or finish, there was a fluid, elevated one.Some of the best looks mashed those fabrics together, like an ivory denim dress with straps of wooden beads, or a pair of frayed canvas overalls worn with a chrome Lurex T-shirt. There was also a tank made entirely of white hand-strung wooden beads, which you could wear over a camisole, a thin turtleneck, or even a shirtdress. That kind of layering piece has been popular for a few seasons now, but Edun’s will look different from the bustiers and crop tops hanging on racks nearby.
9 January 2017
Edunhas a new “collective” of designers at the helm, but their names aren’t being revealed—at least, not yet. It’s a move to refocus Edun’s identity and underline the label’s core mission: to support business in Africa and elevate the continent’s rich, artisanal crafts. (The house also nixed a traditional Spring ’17 fashion show.) The sleek silhouettes the brand is known for are still there, but it’s put an even stronger emphasis on handmade details; the label’s CEO, Julien Labat, described it as balancing African inspiration with a streamlined, urban approach to dressing.A 1970s Jack Garofalo photo of a woman in Harlem dressed in African clothing served as a visual clue. The ’70s were a major runway trend a few seasons ago, but the decade is still influencing how we dress—consider the cropped bell-bottoms, warm color palette, and suede accessories on the market right now. So Edun’s design team tweaked groovy silhouettes like zip-front dresses, skinny Lurex knits, and leather jackets with distinctive African details: A few jersey tees were hand-embroidered by a women’s group in Rwanda, for instance, and an A-line organic canvas slip dress was hand-painted by an artisan with abstract flowers. The collection’s hero pant—a slim flare that could be unzipped below the knee—came in that same hand-painted fabric, as well as a raw African denim (which is sure to be a hit) and mint green velour. Pants are a strong suit for Edun, but a white coat made of flowery lace and recycled polyester felt refreshingly feminine and new.Edun is also introducing its first official handbag range, including a crocheted hobo and a square tote with big metal rings for handles. They’re exactly what their fans are likely missing in their wardrobes—but women who have never shopped the label will likely find the bags just as desirable. One of Edun’s strengths has always been that despite a cerebral, ethically minded m.o., the clothes don’t read crunchy or clichéd, and it was nice to see that’s still the case.
23 September 2016
In May, Danielle Sherman stepped down after just over three years as the creative director ofEdun, and she has yet to be replaced—the company has said that it is considering “a new creative organization”—and so Edun’s CEO, Julien Labat, walked editors through the collection at the showroom. “This was done by the design team,” he said, emphasizing the continuation of ideas from previous seasons that worked well—knits with fringed hems, artisan-carved buttons—as well as newer developments. The collection is around 40 percent bigger now; in a nod to the length of time that the clothes will spend in stores, the pieces very clearly range from autumn appropriate (fringed suede in burnt orange and black, double crepe in yellow and red) to spring (optic-white cotton separates; loose, striped trapeze dresses).As hasoften been the case this season, it was all about stripes, and inspiration came from the work of artist Louise Bourgeois; a 1970s picture of Diana Ross (poolside in Palm Springs in a sporty striped maillot); and the ceremonial garb of Liberia’s Gio people, who use different patterns and manners of draping to signify hierarchy within their society. In accordance with the brand’s mission, sourcing was all ethically done and intended to stimulate local African economies: Organic cotton canvas came from South Africa, jersey from Ethiopia, the striped pullovers were made in Madagascar, and hand-carved mother-of-pearl buttons were created by a Kenyan artisan. (A yarn-dyed double crepe was inspired by an African weaving technique, but rendered at an Italian mill.) The accessories were a highlight: The whipstitched leather purses had been manufactured for the first time in Madagascar, and quite charming little low-top sneakers in neutral tones—the type of thing that should be everywhere but is too often impossible to find—were made in collaboration with the African brand Sawa, which produces entirely in Ethiopia.
14 June 2016
“This is our first time doing something really feminine—our version of feminine,” said designer Danielle Sherman ofEdun’s Fall 2016 collection, and she had the flou to prove it. But we’ll get back to that, because Sherman also has a beautiful seven-week-old baby, who, at a studio visit the day before the show, squalled only lightly, as if to assert that, of the new creations in the room (one, a clothing collection; the other, herself), she retained superiority. Edun’s wares were no worse for it.In fact, it’s possible that Sherman’s maternity had a positive effect on the design process. It can be hard for designers, who are tasked with bringing us the new and the now and the tools with which to steer this careening industry forward, to create a narrative through line to lead us to the sum of a collection’s parts beyond the obvious (“this sells well,” or “I like the way this looks”). This is where, typically, films, iconic references, or imagined characters come into play: “Our girl does this . . . ,” “Our woman is that . . . ,” “She stays out all night, wakes up, and throws this on to do her errands.” Sherman, for her part, leaned into the accumulation of objects as a part of the narrative itself, citing the photography of Sharon Beals—specifically, her images of birds’ nests, the construction of which Sherman called “the amalgamation of found materials.” Where the magpie gathers bottle caps, buttons, twigs, and leaves, Sherman feathered her nest with materials like tweed, denim, and leather responsibly sourced from across Africa; graphically whipstitched trim on a topcoat; and “found buttons” (culled both from eBay and an artisan who hand-carves them from horn) rendered as prints on silk and velour.But the most successful aspect of the collection came from its newly focused, feminine skew—particularly the bias-cut nude velvet dévoré dress, burned through with a design from Ethiopian artist Wosene Worke Kosrof’s work,Ethiopian Grammar: jumbled lettering spelling phrases like “mother love” mixed in with the Amharic alphabet. That dress was elegant in its abstractions—its lettering as alternately hyper literal and utterly abstract as the zodiac, depending on the viewer, and as light on the body as a T-shirt. It, like the leather accessories, also wore its origins proudly: two sizes of leather satchels and one hoop-centered leather duffel, worn as a backpack, could easily work their way into the modern wardrobe.
So could the very winning lug-soled creeper-cum-brogue boots and heeled Mary Janes. More things to add to the nest, for sure.
14 February 2016
Danielle Sherman has woven a distinctive graphic line into her designs forEdun, and her minimalist aesthetic has proved a solid foundation on which to build the ethically minded brand. After finding inspiration in the work of Dada performance artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp last season, Sherman was drawn to another maverick creative of post-war Europe: avant-garde Belgian choreographer Akarova. The costumes and textile backdrops that Akarova created with her partner, artist Marcel-Louis Baugniet, gave rise to the most vibrant prints in the collection, and one hand-drawn geometric pattern was as effective on a silk A-line midi-length dress as it was on a mannish rubber rain mac or fuzzy shearling peacoat.Akarova conceived of her work as moving architecture, and that’s an idea that is right in line with the way Sherman approaches fashion. The sense of proportion in the collection—one in which hardware is supersized, trousers are cropped, and earrings are mismatched—is appealingly off-kilter and precise all at once. It’s perhaps not terribly surprising, then, that Sherman’s first denim offering for the brand is all clean lines and comes with nary a shred or a whisker. In fact, the A-line jean skirts and workwear-inspired jackets are nice antidotes to the slashed and destroyed look that has come to define designer denim—Japanese selvedge jeans that will come with a Made in Africa label, no less.
14 December 2015
Tethering high-fashion values to sustainable ones isn’t an easy task, yet it’s something that creative directorDanielle Shermanhas managed to do since she took the helm ofEdunin 2013. The brand’s commitment to producing ethically sound clothing in Africa is now a decade deep, thanks to founders Ali Hewson and Bono, and for Sherman the continent has been a rich source of inspiration too.This season it was the ceremonial dance costumes of the Kuba Kingdom in Central Africa that piqued the designer’s interest, and those familiar with the tribe’s distinctive graphic textiles might have picked up on the influence in the hand-loomed polka-dot pattern on a fringed jumpsuit. Beyond that, though, the references were anything but literal. Intricate African craftwork was subtly woven throughout instead—be it on the tassel of a pointy slipper that was made in Morocco, or the macramé trimming of a modish cropped suit fabricated in Madagascar.There was a gentle ’30s sway to the collection too—a nod to Dada performance artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp—and you could see signs of it in the contrast stitching of pleated pinafore dresses and the neckline of a charming sailor-inspired look. One standout top in workman’s orange was a particularly compelling take on the off-the-shoulder trend that’s been sweeping both the runway and the streets this season. Given that the brand’s sleek new line of handbags was manufactured in South Africa, it’s clear that Sherman is charting new territory with Edun in more ways than one.
14 September 2015
This morning, Julien Labat was excited to show a video he’d posted a few days ago to Edun’s Instagram page. The CEO pressed play and there on his iPhone screen was a man hand-weaving a blue-and-white checked fabric with bright orange stripes on a loom in Africa’s Ivory Coast. Though this may have been a small gesture amid a large and varied Resort presentation, it was a marker of how well Edun is doing in making sustainable clothing from Africa appeal to a mass audience across the world. Unconcerned with naming the members of their design team or appointing a single leader, the evolving brand’s goal is to get their message out to as many who will listen, embrace it, and, of course, buy.This season, the clothes were as smart as they were vibrant, and included trend-driven touches like bustier tops tied with a sculptural bow at the front, and sportier items like long-sleeved tees and button-downs with the brand’s label printed in bold across the bottom of a sleeve or on a pocket. Edun also introduced its riff on the ever-popular tourist tees with a stylized version of one that might have been purchased at a market in Ghana. It was in this part of Africa that the team traveled to gather inspiration for Resort and several pieces boasted the red, green, and yellow of the nation’s flag.Specifically, the focus was on the coastal fishing towns in that area. Among the beautifully crafted knitwear made in Madagascar and the handwoven striped cotton fabric from a Kenyan weaver’s coop, the team at Edun also worked with artisans at Ghana’s Studio One Eighty Nine to create a custom silk hand-batik—as seen in the aforementioned Instagram video. On one of the pretty batik silk dresses, the words “Made in Ghana” were printed subtly around the off-the-shoulder sleeves. Call it logomania with a bigger and better purpose.
5 June 2017
Personal style. It's something the fashion industry likes to blather on about quite a bit, yet it's more elusive than ever. It is hard to know what youdolike when there are so many visuals cueing to what youshouldlike. For Resort, Edun's Danielle Sherman looked to three separate entities that authentically communicate true personal style: the teddy boys of London, the brightly suited sapeurs of sub-Saharan Africa as depicted in the 2009 bookGentlemen of Bacongo,and Coco Chanel in the 1920s. "They seem so different," Sherman said at a showroom preview. "But each one influenced a movement."Different or not, the designer managed to nicely filter it all through her own lens. (Her vision often encompasses taking masculine ideas and silhouettes and making sense of them on a woman.) The double-breasted, peak-lapel blazer in electric pink—an homage to the sapeurs—was elongated but cut narrow enough to the body not to look like the wearer was swimming in it. In a nod to the teddy boys, Sherman used D-rings on tie-waist trousers and to decorate the sleeve of a classic cable-knit sweater. The collection's top shoe was its mannish monk-strap oxford, which worked well with the tapered-leg pants.The piece of the season, though, was a clever ode to Coco: a high-waist, mid-calf skirt that was pleated from the knee down. Sherman engineered the narrow proportions just right so that it worked as well with a waist-length top that accentuated the midsection as it did peeking out from under a boyish blazer. A drop-waist jumpsuit—the first all-in-one Sherman has ever designed for Edun—might end up being the collection's best-seller, but the skirt was the thing to give a woman's closet real personality.
3 June 2015
For Edun, Africa is not only a hub of manufacturing but also a significant source of inspiration. Since joining the brand in 2013, creative director Danielle Sherman has traveled to Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, and now Morocco, where she met with weavers in Fez and heard the call to prayer all the way up in the High Atlas Mountains. But it was in Tangier that she found the core of the collection: the cross section of European and North African culture.The concept was best represented in a sleeveless wool overcoat, which was made out of an incredible double-faced black cashmere wool that Sherman sourced from a menswear shop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, of all places. The silhouette and fabric were a nod to traditional European tailoring, while a panel of handwoven star tapestry brought in the North African ideas. (That part of the piece was made in Fez on a horizontal loom that dates back to Morocco's golden age. It took a week to produce one yard.) Sherman accessorized the coat with a striking brooch created by a Berber artisan in Tiznit. Low-slung, 100 percent-silver rope belts were also handcrafted link by link in the southern Moroccan town.To take the tailoring further, Sherman played with deconstruction. A long vest was turned entirely inside out, exposing the seams and patches of subtle batted quilting. Edges were often left raw and unfinished, even on a jumbo trench made from a rich leather usually reserved for handbags. It was about roughing things up. "Things look too perfect right now," Sherman said at a studio preview. "When something is classic and recognizable, treating it in a way that's a little unfinished feels newer."There's always something mod about Sherman's work, and this season it came through in her leather color-blocked shift dresses and the solid round buttons stacked at the hem of her wide leather pants. There were peacoats, too, with exaggerated martingale backs. The shoes, Edun's first foray into the category, were a bit go-go as well, from a thigh-high leather boot to a slick slingback oxford. Here's hoping that's just the beginning when it comes to brand extensions. In less than two years, Sherman has built on Edun's already established identity in a cool way that is entirely germane to her own sensibilities. Not an easy feat, and she should feel encouraged.
15 February 2015
More than anything else, what a brand needs to succeed in today's crowded fashion marketplace is a signature—a set of defining attributes that allows people to recognize the label's clothes among many others, on a shop floor or out on the street. Danielle Sherman's proud accomplishment at Edun is that she has finally given the company its signature. There's the graphic look of the clothes, a theme she has pressed from her first collection, for Spring 2014, and which she continued to pursue in this, Edun's first Pre-Fall outing. But Sherman's signature-creating effort extends to the details of the clothes as well: As the designer pointed out at an appointment today, she's made elements such as a high, articulated yoke on tees and jackets into a regular part of the brand's vocabulary, alongside tailoring that features side slits intended to give structured items, such as a blocky blazer, a sense of softness and ease. There were more than a few terrific pieces here, but what really impressed was Sherman's thoroughness and the way she had stamped Edun with its own, urbane identity.Anyway, about those pieces: Interpolating references that ranged from the vivid painted village houses of Burkina Faso to the work of Frank Stella and Japanese artist Yuko Nishimura, Sherman's collection tended toward the long and lean, with lots of tunic shapes and gently flared, high-waisted trousers. Pairs of the latter in pinstriped gabardine and a cool French terry-like mélange jersey were particularly natty. Elsewhere, the Nishimura-inspired crinkly leather skirts had a Pleats Please-y insouciance. A fitted ribbed zip-through tunic, tied with a tubular belt at the waist, seemed like a great wardrobe workhorse, the kind of thing a woman could pair with lots of clothes she already owns and instantly update their proportions. Sherman's faux furs had a similar durability—novel in their patchworked graphic-ness but quiet in their palette of sands and browns. They had an offhand, throw-it-on glamour. This season also marked Edun's first excursion into footwear. The shoes were limited to flat and platform slides of lacquered wood and tubular velvet or curly mohair, and they were likably odd. It's good that Sherman isn't afraid of introducing a little quirk here and there, but it's also nice that she doesn't lean on that tone too hard. Her sense of signature is strong enough that she doesn't have to.
9 December 2014
Don't call 'em leopard spots. The pattern on Edun designer Danielle Sherman's Spring '15 calf-hair pieces—slides done in collaboration with Manolo Blahnik, covered buttons on a Henley, sections of a kimono coat—were inspired by dots onkponyungomasks, which are used to ward off spirits by tribes of Africa's Ivory Coast. "They're imperfect circles," Sherman said at a preview in the brand's Soho offices. "We were thinking about the imperfect and the perfect."Perfect circles came in the form of patches on the breast pocket of a framed jacket, as a tonal jacquard pattern on a white sweater, and as a loop buckle on an obi belt. Sherman's initial research typically starts where much of the collection is still produced—Africa. But this season she moved around, drawing from the primary-colored work of Roy Lichtenstein (whose halftones, of course, are made of thousands of circles) as well as judo uniforms, which informed the silhouette of the pants and many of the wrapped shirts. There was a lot of color-blocking, whether on the frame of a cropped suede jacket in navy and azure blue or on a ribbed knit in black and hot red. But the big ideas were in the details: To create the black-and-white striped fabric on the bottom of a pair of trousers (as well as a matching crop top framed in black leather), the Edun team spent hours hand-weaving a synthetic material, which offered that tactile feeling Sherman is often after. And the spotted calf was dyed in cartoonish colors to create a very specific effect. "I wanted it to appear almost artificial," the designer said.This is Sherman's third collection for Edun, and her wares are now at stores like Barneys New York and the Brooklyn chain Bird. They're there because she's creating thoughtful clothes for grown-ups, which is rarer than it should be at the emerging designer level. It's sort of crazy to think that it took Edun, which was founded in 2005, so long to find the right designer to lead the way, but it seems that it did.
7 September 2014
You can tell that Edun designer Danielle Sherman has worked behind the scenes for most of her career. She doesn't talk about clothes in a sweeping way—there's no big dramatic story or inspiration behind her work. It's more about the individual techniques and using them to give the Edun brand context.This is Sherman's second season watching over the LVMH-backed, Bono and Ali Hewson-founded clothing line. (Before that, she was design director of T by Alexander Wang and was on The Row's launch team.) Edun Spring 2014 is just landing on the sales floors now, yet Sherman has already fully redirected the label's aesthetic and talks a lot about building on the house codes, a term typically reserved for much more established brands.So far, she's two for two. For Fall, Sherman focused on materials and texture-blocking, giving sporty silhouettes a fuzzy, earthy quality. "There was a lot of fabric manipulation," she said of the way the wool and alpaca was often brushed upward to create a "hairy" effect. "Even though it's Fall, I wanted to keep it light." For instance, a brushed herringbone wool coat—the sport element reflected in the blown-up engineer stripes near the hem—was unlined, creating a substantial look without the weight. The chunky turtleneck knits, too, had a certain bounciness. The narrow skirts had style, particularly a gray knit with those same white stripes, but the pants were the thing. Sherman showed a ton of oversize trousers—a camel and suede pair, others in black, gray, and ivory wool—but they weren't so huge as to be impossible to wear. Especially when paired comfortably with Adidas Stan Smiths, which Sherman customized with charcoal alpaca or fun fur woven into a check pattern. (Those were made especially for the show, but the handwoven herringbone boot, a collaboration with Manolo Blahnik, is for sale.) Sherman said that she wanted the collection to be playful, and those furry elements—including an ivory gym sack covered in wavy wool fringe, texture-blocked tunics and jackets featuring "teddy bear fun fur," plus the aforementioned charcoal alpaca—achieved that.There is one point of inspiration Sherman plans on revisiting time and again: Africa. (The original and continuous mission of the label is to support trade in the continent, and to do so by producing garments and accessories there.) This season she visited the archives of the Quai Branly museum in Paris to look at African textiles dating back to the 1800s.
"What was interesting to me was the natural, earthy colors," which informed Sherman's palette of cream, camel, black, and gray. The good news is, she has all of the continent to use for ideas. Enough for dozens, if not hundreds, of collections to come.
9 February 2014
A clean slate. That's what Danielle Sherman was given after being appointed creative director at Edun, the LVMH-backed, ethically sourced collection that was founded in 2005 by U2's Bono and his wife Ali Hewson. The original idea for Edun—to effect a real change in developing countries by employing locals to produce clothes instead of simply offering aid from the proceeds generated by said clothes—has stuck, but its designers haven't. First, there was Rogan Gregory, who departed in 2007. Then came Irish designer Sharon Wauchob, who led the label for six seasons. But while these designers are talents in their own right, their ideas for the brand were never strong enough to make it more than a do-gooder label with starry associations. As with much socially responsible fashion, not enough attention was paid to the actual clothes. And as great as it is to buy something that you know was produced in an ethical way, you're only going to buy it if it looks good.Sherman, who helped launch The Row and was design director of T by Alexander Wang for the past five years, has approached her first position at the top in a decidedly different way from her predecessors. And the initial results are more than promising. To start, she has an opinion. About everything. "The fit, the fabrication, the logo—we're redefining it all," said the designer just days before her Spring runway show. "For me, it's about creating clothes that women want to wear."Sherman's new definition of Edun is about "flattening" the silhouette: shirts, blazers and coats are collarless, given dimension through piping on pajama blouses and a handwoven basket weave on a crop top. That cropped shell was worn over a loose tank and a pair of louche box-pleat trousers in white, which were printed with rows and rows of right triangles in brown (a color designers often seem afraid to use). Deep-slit wrap skirts were slung low on the waist and many were done in a rich, rusty leather, some handwoven to create a graphic checkerboard. Sherman was also intent on slicing up the side seams of T-shirts—it lets the wearer tuck the front in and leave the back loose. High side slits on long, straight skirts—again in white—were also prevalent, made to look more nomadic than sexy paired with matching Birkenstocks. A standout long skirt was a stretch-viscose white crepe with rust-colored leather stripes going up those side slits; they gave it an almost collegiate appeal.
To be sure, Edun's altruistic intentions remain, and Sherman is working with artisans throughout the world to create the wares she wants. The designer visited Africa earlier this summer to get the company's factories there on track with her new vision. And that influence can still be felt, especially in the jewelry—like a horn and crystal neck cuff—or the baja hoodies done in leather and knitted mélange rope. In the past, Edun sat on the contemporary floor at department stores; this new collection will be upper-contemporary, or, as Barneys is now calling it, "development." It reflects the new level of prestige Sherman has brought to the brand—finally, the strength of Edun's clothes will match the strength of its mission.
7 September 2013
"I don't want to use the word punk," said designer Sharon Wauchob after presenting Edun's Fall 2013 womenswear collection. "I think you're going to be hearing punk too much this season."Instead, Wauchob—and menswear designer Ricky Hendry—drew from several subcultures: mod, biker, and grunge, to name a few. "It's a cocktail—I didn't feel the need to rigidly focus on one," said Wauchob.The result was that Wauchob served up a concoction of styles that you couldn't quite place. Were those plaid leggings plucked from the early nineties? And weren't those pointy boots totally eighties? But wait—wasn't that motorcycle overcoat a wardrobe extra fromJay and Silent Bob Strike Back? But who really cares about references in this circumstance? All we know is that, altogether, it looked good. (Hat tip to the show's stylist, Melanie Ward, for giving the show a cohesive feeling.)From that Silent Bob-esque motorcycle overcoat (which was great, by the way) to the string of yellow tweed pieces—a blazer, a vest, cigarette pants—it was easy to imagine many of these outfits on members of the audience. (A real scene, thanks to the presence of founders Bono and wife Ali Hewson.) The special touch, though, was the dainty chain detailing—many women's tops and jackets had several chains peppered all over, as did the men's scarves. The chains offered a clear connection between the men's and women's lines. "It's a toughness and a softness," said Hendry, whose hand-dyed velvet blazer would befit any true rock star. But really, what wouldn't in this collection?
6 February 2013
"I don't want to use the word punk," said designer Sharon Wauchob after presenting Edun's Fall 2013 womenswear collection. "I think you're going to be hearing punk too much this season."Instead, Wauchob—and menswear designer Ricky Hendry—drew from several subcultures: mod, biker, and grunge, to name a few. "It's a cocktail—I didn't feel the need to rigidly focus on one," said Wauchob.The result was that Wauchob served up a concoction of styles that you couldn't quite place. Were those plaid leggings plucked from the early nineties? And weren't those pointy boots totally eighties? But wait—wasn't that motorcycle overcoat a wardrobe extra fromJay and Silent Bob Strike Back? But who really cares about references in this circumstance? All we know is that, altogether, it looked good. (Hat tip to the show's stylist, Melanie Ward, for giving the show a cohesive feeling.)From that Silent Bob-esque motorcycle overcoat (which was great, by the way) to the string of yellow tweed pieces—a blazer, a vest, cigarette pants—it was easy to imagine many of these outfits on members of the audience. (A real scene, thanks to the presence of founders Bono and wife Ali Hewson.) The special touch, though, was the dainty chain detailing—many women's tops and jackets had several chains peppered all over, as did the men's scarves. The chains offered a clear connection between the men's and women's lines. "It's a toughness and a softness," said Hendry, whose hand-dyed velvet blazer would befit any true rock star. But really, what wouldn't in this collection?
6 February 2013
"What is iconic?" This was the question on Sharon Wauchob's mind for Spring, so she looked to timeless fashion tropes for answers. She honed in on two opposing motifs, military toughness and femininity, the latter of which led to a dissection of lingerie. Wauchob combined the softer elements of underpinnings with rugged army staples for a cool, pretty mix of utilitarian daywear. For a touch of girly shine, muted paillettes dusted the pockets of nylon cargo shorts, slouchy and low-slung enough to draw the eye up, up, up to the jersey bralets they were worn with. But even the sight of so many lovely midriffs couldn't compete with the runway's real scene-stealers: structured, mixed-textile outerwear pieces that added a necessary dose of polish to many of the ensembles' competing layers. A sleeveless trench in bright peach looked lightweight but still substantial; better yet, it steered clear of the straps, buckles, zippers, and harnesses that vied for attention on a few too many blouses and shorts. When the balance of wispy layers and functional hardware was right, the looks had an appealingly unstudied ease.
7 September 2012
As Sharon Wauchob explained before the Edun show today, her strategy in taking the creative reins at the label was to start quietly. Now that it's been a year, she says she finally felt ready to raise the volume. Well, job done: This season's collection claimed stronger color, greater textural variation and more ambitious silhouettes than the brand has been known for in the past. In general, it boasted a clear point of view.The color was mostly in Wauchob's jungle-inspired prints, which the designer twisted, wrapped, and draped in a variety of sculptural ways. Pops of color could also be found in the collection's graphic knits, a strong but small group that could have gotten more airtime in the show. Alongside the dresses, Wauchob's principal proposition was a fitted, often asymmetric top worn with baggy leather or dense wool trousers with an elasticized hem; the look was sharp and urbane, if not exactly groundbreaking. But the real standout of this collection was the outerwear—the slightly oversize bombers and parkas, in particular—and the lacquered hand-knit sweaters and leather skirts. The black skirt and sweater with coats of blue lacquer were seriously cool, with a futuristic mien.The main quibble here is that, for all the sharp-looking stuff on the catwalk, Edun hasn't marked off any territory as clearly its own. With the possible exception of the print dresses, you wouldn't be terribly surprised to find many of these clothes on another brand's runway. That's the next notch on the volume, and Wauchob has positioned herself well to turn it up.
11 February 2012
Edun is insistently global: Backed by an Irish-born globe-trotting rock star, supported by a French conglomerate, produced in Africa, India, and Asia. No surprise, then, to hear that its latest collection was inspired by the idea of a "global quilt," drawing from traditions worldwide.Things were weighted slightly toward the Scottish—tartans were widespread throughout, as were twists on Fair Isle motifs—but there were also nips and tucks from sea to shining sea. If "global" is right, so is "quilt." An Edun piece tends not to reinvent the wheel, but to accent it with patches (often literal ones) from hither and yon. So the black leather moto jackets came with lapels in tartan wool, and nylon flak jackets had leather pocket details.Elsewhere, disparate elements were fused, like knit jackets with contrast sleeves, or slouchy sweatpants in suiting herringbone. Slouch—there's another key word for the label. Its silhouettes tend toward the relaxed. But for world travelers, comfort is king.
11 February 2012
Africa may be what Edun's business is about, but it's never played an aesthetic role. That changed this season as designer Sharon Wauchob continued to secure her footing at the LVMH-backed label. "I had sort of avoided it before," she said after the show. "But now I felt I had the confidence to bring Africa in." It was a relatively subtle thing—evidenced in a diamond block print used throughout that Wauchob superimposed with an English floral, as well as shell, bead, and feather necklaces and dangling earrings. In short: the sort of quote-unquote ethnic elements thrown into the casual mix by those cool girls who worship at the church of Isabel Marant. The result was effective. Wauchob begins designing by asking herself what girls want to wear. Certainly one answer is the beachy bohemian little dresses and tops worn with slouchy cropped silk pants and boxy utilitarian jackets—the navy one in look 22 must have been on many a wish list. This was a lighter collection than Fall, but Wauchob insists on maintaining a modern edge, thus the neoprene and grommets, the latter of which felt forced.However, if black's your thing, our money's on the crochet A-line dress or skirt. Whether you care or not, they're made by Kenyan artisan nuns, like a sub-Saharan Alaïa atelier. Ethical and eco haven't exactly done gangbusters at retail. But considering the company's efforts to keep telling its story—the run of show highlighted pieces to be produced in Africa, now a healthy 37 percent—a change could be afoot.
10 September 2011
Sharon Wauchob is now in her second season at the reins at Edun, and the picture of what the brand will become under the Irish designer's leadership is coming into focus. Her Fall runway, not unlike last season's, was full of real, wearable clothes. As hard as this might be to believe, you can't necessarily say that about all the contemporary labels out there. But Wauchob has apparently surrounded herself with a fresh, young team and she says that helps keep her in touch with what cool girls want to wear.Let's start with the coats. The quilted khaki storm trench that opened the show has the X factor that will make it a popular personal order item with editors. In this era of influential street style blogs that really means something, and there was more solid outerwear where that came from. Knits were another big component: They ranged from a utilitarian ribbed sweater dress to Fair Isle cardigans inspired by Wauchob's own roots to a delicate black crochet skirt made by nuns in Africa. She has spent a good amount of time there in the last year recruiting craftspeople and researching factories; the company, which was founded by Ali Hewson and Bono, remains committed to its fair-trade principles even as it continues to grow under the aegis of LVMH. But it wasn't Africa that inspired the prints that make up the collection's third important element—it was Romany culture. The dense, abstract prints that appeared on a gorgeous ruffled silk scarf dress, among many other pieces, were lifted from old wallpaper. In the end, though, those details don't really matter. What does is how easily you can imagine this collection transitioning from the runway to the department store floor.
11 February 2011
It's been a season since Sharon Wauchob took over the design helm of Ali Hewson'sEduncollection, but she's in no rush to change the eco-friendly, easy-to-wear line into something more complicated—especially where the guys are concerned. "This collection is about reality," she said at the gallery installation-cum-rock-show the brand staged at the tail end of Milan fashion week. "I always felt in menswear that first and foremost; it's important to show that."Wauchob spoke of ensuring that the pieces had a hand-finished quality. So denim shirts were stained with inky dye, while large-gauge sweaters were hand-knit and cabled only in parts. Her silhouettes are neither loose nor especially tight (though they do venture occasionally into drop-crotch territory), and the line remains denim-centric. It looked properly rockish on the Heartbreaks, a young English band hired to play at the show (they also star in aDazed & Confused-backed editorial styled by the magazine's men's fashion editor, Robbie Spencer). At the same time, you could see how the collection's nonchalance would make it adaptable for the wardrobes of a wide variety of guys. That's Hewson's motto. "It's anyone who feels the clothes speak to them," she said of the Edun man.
17 January 2011
Sharon Wauchob made her Edun debut underneath the High Line. The pebbled runway ran nearly the entire length of the block between 24th and 25th Streets. It was a cool setting, urban and a bit gritty, yet still tethered to the outdoors, which made it a fitting one for the socially conscious clothing label founded by Ali Hewson and her U2 frontman husband, Bono.Fifteen percent of the collection is made in Africa, and Wauchob used familiar tropes of that continent (earthy colors, natural fabrics, beading) to create a low-key, wearable lineup. "Edun isn't about trends," she said backstage. Instead, the focus was on classic, lasting pieces like a crisp white poplin shirtdress with knot embroidery down the sleeves, and another in perforated khaki leather; a sandy-hued linen pantsuit; and floor-scraping mixed-print silk dresses—all perched atop wood and suede wedges. Here and there, there were eye-catching little details: A sarong was embroidered with wooden sequins, sweaters were woven with beads. Before the show, Hewson said she'd hired Wauchob to bring a freshness and energy to the brand. So far, so good.
10 September 2010