USA: Design house Edun's earth tones for Fall 2011 celebrate Africa at NY Fashion Week

Record ID: 827116

  • Title: USA: Design house Edun's earth tones for Fall 2011 celebrate Africa at NY Fashion Week
  • Date: 14th February 2011
  • Summary: MODEL SLEEPING BACKSTAGE PAN UP OF DRESS HANGING ON RACK
  • Embargoed: 1st March 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa, Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA7RFZTF9P7W1FE85ZC11KDM1HK
  • Story Text: Fashion design house Edun told a warm story for Fall 2011 with 1970s-style long crochet skirts, flared pants and hooded coats in earth tones, accented with cotton and jewelry from Africa, at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week on Saturday (February 12) in New York.
    Designer Sharon Wauchob reimagined the romantically feminine clothes of the 1970s, sending ruffly skirts and dresses in silk prints down the runway. The knee-length styles caressed the body, fluttering like autumn leaves as the models walked.
    The scarf blouse, a 1970s staple, returned - reborn in vivid prints.
    Colors in the prints - green and blue, brown and gold or charcoal and white - echoed nature's fall and winter palettes in an original way.
    Some looks clung to a woman's shape, like an African crochet maxi skirt in black wool. The skirt was shown with a black turtleneck sporting a vertical strip of crochet lace to expose a bit of skin.
    The African details - fringe crochet skirts, organic cotton quilted coats and jackets and tribal collar necklaces from Made, a jewelry producer in Kenya - represented more than just a trend in Edun's Fall 2011 line.
    Edun was co-founded in 2005 by Ali Hewson and her husband, U2 frontman Bono, with the premise that style should have substance. The company was created to develop trade with Africa. Since then, Edun has set up a program called the Conservation Cotton Initiative, or CCI for short, to provide money, training and support to cotton farmers and their families in Northern Uganda. Edun has also invested in factories in Africa to employ local people to make the clothes.
    In an interview with Reuters Television after the runway show, owner and co-founder Ali Hewson said, "To work in Africa was the first thought. And then it seemed natural to get involved in the clothing industry because it was already there, and because Africans grew cotton from the beginning, so they brought cotton to America. So that's really where the first thought came from. Now if I had known what I was getting involved in, I wouldn't have done it. But it's been an amazing journey. And to be able to stand here and see your second collection go down the runway and feel proud is an incredible thing."
    Edun gets about 25 percent of its fashion materials from Africa now. But by 2013, Edun hopes that at least 40 percent of its clothes will be made in Africa.
    "I think what I'm most proud of is all the people who work in the company who feel, you know, that there is, it's more than just clothes, it's about the story behind the clothes," Hewson told Reuters. "And there is an excitement and an energy in the company for what we're doing and for everybody who is involved. And there is a commitment beyond a hundred percent from everybody who's involved. And I think just seeing that happen every day in the office, let alone what happens on the ground, is a very positive and exciting thing to be involved with."
    In 2009, French fashion powerhouse LVMH bought a 49 percent stake in Edun.This investment gave the young fashion company access to more financing to expand its vision to increase trade with Africa.
    When asked if she had any favorite elements in the Fall 2011 collection, Hewson said "it's hard" to pick just one, then added: "I think the prints, the silk prints are so beautiful. And I think Sharon has done such a great job at interpreting everything into those prints. I think they're just, they're saying a lot."
    Spotted on the front row: actor Hugh Jackman.
    Before the runway show, Reuters Television asked Jackman what he thought - and whether he would be going to see other collections during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York.
    "This is it for me, I'm very exclusive, I'm a monogamist kind of guy. So this is it, I'm not going to other shows," Jackman said.
    With the Oscars coming up on February 27, Jackman was asked about his role this year and whether he might be up for hosting the Hollywood awards show again: "I'm presenting this year and maybe I'll do it next year." In 2009, he hosted the Academy Awards ceremony, better known as the Oscars.
    One celebrity who wasn't at Edun's Fall 2011 runway show: Bono. That led to a question from Reuters for Hewson about what she thought about the Broadway musical "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," which has music provided by her husband, Bono, and The Edge of U2. The musical, which has delayed its opening due to actors' injuries, revisions and technical mishaps, has been panned by critics who have seen its previews.
    "I love it, I love it. It's the most visually exciting, musically of course, amazing," Hewson said. "And I really, I was there the other night and I just get so excited every time I go. And there is a real sense from the audience when they're there that they're with the actors and they're up for them because they've taken so many knocks. And it's great, it's really, it's really well worth seeing."
    On Broadway and in fashion, the tradition is the show must go on.
    Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week will continue showing designers' Fall 2011 collections in Lincoln Center and at other venues through February 17 in New York City.
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