The day after President Trump announced his intention to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, a walkthrough of the latest collection from Each x Other yielded a prescient message on sweatshirt and leather jacket alike: No Walls Between Us. What’s more, at least one piece boasted an embroidered patch of two Braque-like doves filled in with the flags of both countries, sharing a rose between their beaks. Uncanny, no?
Cofounders Jenny Mannerheim and Ilan Delouis insist these designs were in place before the president was elected. As Mannerheim, the brand’s creative director, tells it, the referencing first arose from reading about Patti Smith visiting Frida Kahlo’s home in Mexico City, which is included in her memoir, M Train. Their in-house artist collaborator, Robert Montgomery, subsequently proposed No Walls Between Us, in addition to La Poesía es Liberacíon as their slogans, obviously sensitive to what was still a remote possibility.
As with previous collections of theirs that feature poetry outwardly and inside as linings, the messages do not overpower the clothes. In this case, they overlaid the influences on their instinctive arty-boho style, to build a large wardrobe anchored in alternative tailoring and pants with attitude. Whereas some of their earlier offerings felt forced, this one seemed to bring more clarity to their various creative impulses and greater authenticity to their cool-girl positioning. It was there in the subtle fringes added to a Prince of Wales suit layered with a serape cape, and in the way they extended a brick red perfecto to resemble a blazer. Almost anything featuring denim—from a pea coat spliced with flared denim cuffs to the patched jeans—would ignite retail interest; less so the animal spots, which upon first impression, didn’t relate. Aside from a tighter edit, the brand’s mission to diffuse pointed poetry through clothes seems as relevant as ever. Words matter.
