Gaggles of celebrities will be running around New York tonight at Fashion's Night Out events, and U2 fans in particular will be flocking to Bloomingdale's.
That's where Edun will host its FNO party featuring its "Storytellers and Liars" menswear collection for fall/winter, with guests Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rasuk, from HBO's How to Make It in America, along with the organic label's founder Ali Hewson — and with any luck for those fans, her husband (and label co-founder) Bono, too.
One of a number of FNO shopping events that Bloomingdale's is hosting tonight, Edun will transform the Metro Level Men’s Department of into a temporary club: The Double Seven and The Lambs Club Pop Up, billed as "the ultimate gentleman’s lounge complete with special guest DJ, handcrafted cocktails and tasty bites." The first 100 people to make an Edun purchase will receive a limited edition Edun Live tee.
The event will be followed by another first: the brand will livestream its spring/summer 2012 New York Fashion Week show (taking place Sunday), with fans invited to check its Twitter and Facebook feeds for details.
This week the brand also launches a digital campaign featuring 12 men, social entrepreneurs “who walk the walk” as seen above.
The Edun Pioneers Project, as it's called, promotes the brand's core value that style and substance can be united in the fashion food chain – from raw materials and fair trade in Africa, right through to manufacturers and consumers who buy the clothes.
Desirability and sustainability are the hallmarks of Edun’s fall/winter 2011 men’s-wear campaign: “We wanted to show people who had blazed a trail for themselves and were actually doing something in the world that was really great,” explains Ali Hewson, who founded the company in 2005. “They are exactly the kind of guys we had in mind when we were making the clothes. It doesn’t hurt that they all know how to dress and are attractive.”
In line with the real-people-as-models trend used by Uniqlo, Dunhill, Gap and others, Edun’s "pioneers" include Marcus Samuelsson, owner of the Red Rooster restaurant in Harlem; Sean Carasso, founder of Falling Whistles, a nonprofit organization that promotes peace in the Congo; TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie; and Jim Moriarty, CEO of Surfrider, an activist network committed to protecting and preserving America’s coastlines who sums it up: “This is what change looks like. It’s a long-term commitment and it’s smart.”
“We were hearing from our retailers that we need to define for them who the Edun guy was. It’s a guy’s guy. It’s a guy that guys want to go have a beer with and girls would love to be with,” commented Bridget Russo, head of the brand’s global marketing, to the New York Times.
Organic to the brand’s commitment to “conscionable commerce,” for one featured item each month, 10% of sales will be donated to that pioneer’s chosen cause. Digital banner ads featuring the Edun pioneers will appear on blogs including Refinery29.com and foodrepublic.com.
"It’s an honor for us to be able to be associated with these guys," said Hewson in the Times. "They’re real men doing real work."
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