The magic is in the idea. At least that’s what Edsa is trying to drive home. The brainchild of Sai Villafuerte and Kat Fernando, Edsa is a creative collaboration/brand that made their debut last year in London’s Fungi Fest, an all-day festival that hosted talks and workshops on various fungi-related topics such as its material futures and medicinal mushrooms.
Playing with humour, their capsule collection toyed with how we view our food and how it’s embraced. Embroidered on the two sweaters is “If you feel good, the mushrooms will feel good too,” echoing the freeing and imaginative benefits of magic mushrooms. But this psychedelic message is but a part of what the duo is trying to convey — it’s way beyond that. Entering a safe and happy environment while maintaining a healthy mindset guarantees the full benefits of the experience hence the sweaters’ design.
“The same can be said about the intuition people have towards their food,” shared Sai. “Whether it’s a chef winging it on a dish or a farmer ensuring his or her crops stay healthy. If you feel good about what you do, then the outcome will feel good too.”
Sai, a journalist who has appeared on VICE, MUNCHIES, and Huffpost UK, specializes in cultural reporting, which led to her and Kat, a graduate of London College of Fashion, to come up with the idea of a brand that played on the aspects of foodways and fashion.
Foodways are a beginning for this pseudo-culture study brand. Food and creativity go hand in hand in Edsa’s search for fertile ideas. However, Edsa isn’t particularly focused on just food; it’s more of a jumping point to other topics of conversation. For them, aspects like authenticity, identity, and sustainability are at the forefront of addressing the context of underrepresented cuisines. “What can food tell us about our lives, and what can our lives tell us about the food we eat?” is what pushed them in their endeavour shared Sai.
For the duo there couldn’t have been a better time and place to debut their collection than Fungi Fest since it wholly represented what they wanted to achieve: the pursuit of knowledge and the cultivation of fresh ideas. More often than not, brands are reflections of personalities; it’s what makes them unique — it’s the driving force that starts the conversation. The intersections between food and creativity are indeed fascinating but more than that they’re starting points for discussion.
“Edsa is meant to be an extension of ourselves and our interests,” said Kat. “Anything we find remotely funny, interesting or thought-provoking, it’ll be reflected surely on whatever project we’re working on. We think the key aspect we both share for this is our humour, which can be summed up as either smartly stupid or stupidly smart… something to think about!”
In retrospect, reflections on fungi is probably the last place you’d expect to find any humour but it just proves how the culinary world intersects with different ideas and disciplines. Filipino food is probably one of the more difficult cuisines to explain; there’s really no one way or method to navigate it in its entirety. It’s this kind of complex narrative that Edsa wants to explore in detail.
“One night, over dinner, Kat and I thought about starting a Filipino supper club. We were thinking about what theme this would be, joking it would have an EDSA-themed menu … so we thought this dinner concept was quite funny,” said Sai. “Yet, the more we thought about it, the more profound we thought the idea was. Kat and I compared EDSA to the ancient Silk Road as a place where cultural exchange takes place. For example, the Sicilian oranges we’ve come to recognize today were actually introduced by Chinese traders around the 9th century. Likewise, EDSA is sort of like a gateway to not only the sights of the Philippines, but its food as well. To us, the concept of traffic perfectly embodies the way in which cultures evolve. We all start a journey, or idea, only to end up on the other side eventually, no matter how long it takes.”
Their tagline is “Delicious Creativity,” echoing the duo’s sentiments of innovation — to put their personal twist on flavors they’re familiar with. In other words, to create something that only they can — to serve something unique. “Original ideas are simply old ones that have been adapted, extended, and improved to our new circumstances. Edsa embodies this very philosophy: that “there are no new or original ideas, just authenticity,” said Sai.
To keep up to date with their developments, Edsa recently launched their newsletter. You can sign up through this link.
JAN 25 — Komik Fest
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