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.
