Danielle Sherman has woven a distinctive graphic line into her designs for Edun, 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.
