Edison Clothing - Designer Spotlight
The past five years of fashion have been polarising to say the least. Candy-coloured hair has gone mainstream, sportswear doesn't look out of place on the runway and granny shoes are as en vogue as stilettos.
However, in the glam and glitz of all things 70s, boho and velvet, the subculture of streetwear has grown at rate that is unprecedented. Now, breaking into realms of mainstream fashion, streetwear is making style-mavens sit up and take notice.
We caught up with Chris, co-founder of Edison Clothing, to get his take on the movement and what it means to be "part of the fabric."
Hi, Chris! Who are you and what is Edison Clothing?
Hi, there! Well, Edison is a brand that I have run along side my business partner Ryan for the last 3 years. It started as a labour of love, but now we are really focussed on growing as a business. Of course, focusing on the brand as a business brings new challenges which we hadn't encountered before. But we're loving (nearly) every minute of it!
Taking the plunge as an entrepreneur is quite a leap! How did it all begin?
I used to make music under the moniker Foul Paulo. Ryan and myself always talked about doing a run of t-shirts for that, as Ryan was also doing some designs for that project. From there, it turned into "let's start a t shirt label!" Our first run was supposed to feature Biggie Smalls along with other rap icons like Andre 3000 and Slick Rick as part of the design. As we thought about it more and more it was evident that doing something more as a brand was more organic to us.
Streetwear has evolved and grown in popularity over the past few years quite rapidly. What do you think has been the catalyst for this?
We've always avoided jumping on trends. It's hard because we love streetwear and get excited about the latest releases and styles, and we're quite good at predicting what's going to be the next big thing. However, we said from the start we didn't want to be reactionary and create designs or clothing just to jump on a bandwagon and try to cash in. We're only in our 2nd year trading and just want to concentrate or creating a strong brand that hopefully stands apart from others.
What inspires the Edison brand?
We are inspired by so many things. Believe it or not most of our inspiration comes from non-clothing brands and products. I've always been a sneaker obsessive, so a lot of our colours take inspiration from sneaker colour ways, but we're also inspired by artists such as Piet Parra, Frank Ocean, Kanye West, Tinker Hatfield and Ralph Lauren.
What can we expect to see from Edison clothing over the next year?
We are currently working and planning on expanding the range across the board in both clothing and more lifestyle products, so keep your eyes peeled for that! Also, we have a couple of really cool collabs coming up and will hopefully be running more events.
Street wear is less about the trends and more about the lifestyle. How would you describe the typical Edison lifestyle?
I'd say it's a bit of a vibrant mix. We have touched upon various cultures and subcultures from the usual streetwear pillars of skate and hip hop right through to club nights which we have hosted. Edison seems to attract a really eclectic mix and as we ourselves have such a huge varied taste, this is exactly the way we want things. We are as happy for middle-aged dads to be wearing our clothing out doing the gardening as we are with rappers wearing the brand on stage.
Your funniest Edison Clothing moment to date?
Our first photoshoot had a funny-slash-tragic ending. It went great, we were using friends as models and a local photographer who was helping for free. We were coming to the end and decided we better get some press shots of me and my business partner Ryan. After hours of telling the models how to stand and to relax and try and tell them what to do we both froze. We were trying to be all moody and cool. The models took it as an opportunity to tell us it isn't as easy as it looks! When we got the photos back they were brilliant, the ones we weren't in that is! We both looked awful compared to the models!
It gave us a new found respect for modelling and we've stayed on the other side of the camera ever since. I can't even look at them - they are locked away on my Mac somewhere, banished.
Your mantra?
Keep it simple and be patient. We've been very strict with how we've developed Edison and these are always the two things we keep coming back to. We've maybe stuck to it too much at times, but it has served us well.
That said with the recent developments, I think we're ready to push this and start experimenting more.
