You know how some people are sunshine incarnate? The new Keds x Dusen Dusen collection is like springtime in a sneaker drop. The lineup of three styles, which is available now at keds.com, boasts all kinds of bright hues and punchy prints and is exactly what you need to feel like a much greener season really is just around the corner.
If you're not familiar with Dusen Dusen, it's a womenswear and home goods brand known for offering bold and graphic patterns that pop. Ellen van Dusen, the brains behind the label, attended Tufts University, where she created her own major and studied how the brain reacts to different aesthetics. She then channeled the information she collected into designing striking prints that "stimulate the brain’s reaction to movement, color, and contrast using angular shapes, vivid hues, and upbeat, feel-good prints," according to the Keds website. A science and design nerd? The coolest combination there is. You can head to Dusen Dusen's web store to shop items like bedding, pajamas, ready-to-wear, swimwear, sunglasses, and more, and I guarantee that a simple scroll through her technicolor site will leave you feeling energized and a little bit happier. (Yes, her patterns are that good!)
Her collaboration with Keds is no less impressive and infuse Dusen's forward-thinking approach to design with Keds' classic beloved shoe style. "Keds follows a similar model to the way I like to work at Dusen Dusen—using a classic shape as a canvas to experiment with color, pattern and shape. It was really fun to translate my work to a shoe," Dusen says of the project. Three sneakers are included within the collection, so no matter what your sartorial personality is there will be one that'll complement it.
First up is the Champion Stripe style, which is a soft, stripey dream. The canvas upper boasts contrastingly colored stripes in a salmon and white, and mint green and nude color way, and the laces are a powdery pinkish purple.
Then there's the Champion Spill in the lighter color way. Indeed, it almost looks like globs of rich blue, pale yellow, and burnt orange fell right off of a paint palette and onto a white shoe, giving the style a cool abstract feel.
And finally, the Champion Spill also comes in a dark color way. Instead of a white canvas upper, the base color of the shoe is black, and blocks of powdery purple, burnt orange, rich blue, and powder blue decorate it. The laces and rubber sole of the shoe are a matching inky black.
Each offering is cool and stylish without taking itself too seriously, because fashion should be nothing if not fun, right? "I recently learned that Keds was the first sneaker company to make shoes for women, which I think is so cool," says Dusen on Keds' website. "I'm happy to be working with a brand that is forward thinking at its core and has opened the world up for women in a novel way.”
Shop each style within the collection now for $70 at keds.com and put some spring(time) in your step.
