Once upon a time—in those glorious days of Microsoft Messenger (MSN) and MySpace “Top Friends”—you could reach Eddie (not Edward) Cuming by emailing its_eddie_not_edward@homtail.com. That address is now a relic of simpler times, but its energy remains and it’s all over this Edward Cuming collection, including on a T-shirt on which Cuming had turned his Hotmail into a slogan. To clarify: the designer is Eddie, the label is Edward. If it works for him, it works for us.
This collection started, Cuming said, with a necklace he found at a private museum in Ibiza. The wife of the man who built the museum made colorful, funky pieces of jewelry with beads of all colors and sizes to sell in the gift shop. “They were just so beautiful,” the designer said at his showroom in Paris, “I could feel the joy she had just piecing stuff together in such a random way, and that’s sort of how I work.”
Like those necklaces, Cuming’s clothes are fascinating explosions of disparate shapes and colors that would feel random were they not so thoughtful. He knows that even the most miscellaneous-looking things, when made by a person, often have a sense of intention. Case in point, one of the first dresses Cuming made for this collection is a fabulous slip with a black velvet-looking nylon skirt and gold lamé bodice trimmed with bright red fabric hanging off gray jersey. Sitting next to his racks at the showroom was an installation Cuming worked on with a friend; she’d tied endless scraps of jersey, sequins, and other fabrics to make one giant, gorgeous knot.
“I really wanted to focus this season,” Cuming explained, “honing in on a lot of the techniques that have been building over time and elevating them a bit.” To his credit, that didn’t mean he was pulling back, just that he was practicing restraint. In the mix were some fantastic little athletic shorts in silk and denim. “I should send Juergen Teller some of these!” he quipped. And he should; Harry Styles or Paul Mescal, meanwhile, would probably like the fun sequin skirts trimmed with feathers.
“It’s more considered now,” he said, of the way in which he’s “pieced stuff” together. Take, for instance, a green silk skirt featuring one of his signature motifs, spiraling lines inserted into each other. Last season’s version had shaggy, fringe-like threads hanging all over. It was back for spring with a bit of a trim, the shredding more polished. Moral of the story: Embrace your greatest hits, be it a funky skirt or your childhood email.