Jane Wade & KEEN Get Their Feet Wet For SS27

The Jane Wade Woman is out of office this season. She won’t be taking any more calls. In fact, she’s escaped the corporate world, for the time being, on sabbatical, and is heading home for a while to do some soul-searching instead. She might even touch some grass. And, as evidenced by the eponymous label’s SS27 collection, titled “The Riverbed,” she may have very well found herself once more amid the elements. “The water is running down through the waterfall into the riverbed, and there you find her strolling on her hike through the woods,” shared Wade in a post-show exclusive. “She lays out her towels on the rocks; she's with friends, and it's this great sigh of relief.”

The perils in venturing downhill to “The Riverbed” in search of oneself, however, are anything but. Creeks and rivers, though charming at first glance, are not so much so upon first slip; these are shifty terrains to navigate and, thus, require shoes equally compatible with the elements as the threads they’re paired with. KEEN, the sustainable footwear savant, has spent much time considering how those shoes might not only fare out in the wide-open, but also look and feel; and it’s precisely due to their hybrid philosophy that they’ve collaborated with Wade this season as the show’s exclusive footwear partner.

Among the season’s offerings, the standouts were the Hyperport H2s and Newport H2s. Part sandal, part hiker, both models are built not merely to make the journey, but to endure far beyond it. “These shoes are treaded, and what makes them special in comparison to other water shoes is the toe cover. You can actually hike in these and tread in the water, and on the rocks with them,” noted Wade.

It’s a homecoming of sorts, not just for Wade, who returned to her hometown of Portland to do some soul-searching of her own that felt, as she put it, “Like transcendence,” but also for KEEN. Like Wade, KEEN hails from Portland, a common ground that opened their dialogue in which they dug deep into the relationship between fashion and nature. Those ideas explored how workwear can adapt to the outdoors. “We share an instinct to challenge convention and rethink the role function can play in design,” noted Alyson Hancock, Senior Brand Director at KEEN. “This partnership feels like a natural meeting of two distinctly Portland perspectives, brought together on the runway. Seeing Jane reinterpret KEEN’s utilitarian silhouettes through her SS27 vision is an exciting expression of where performance, individuality, and modern style can meet.”

The journey to that meeting point was rife with the classic Wade hallmarks: industrial utilitarianism via sturdy technical fabrics, zippers, chainwork, metal mesh, and cargo-style drawstrings galore. Corp-core went Gorp-core, with ensembles borrowing double-zippered tops in Jersey and the ease of sportswear silhouettes from each aesthetic, respectively. It was all very Gaia goes downtown, and rather chic. 

Elsewhere, Waimea flip-flops and Zerraports, with their statement-making straps and cyber-evocative silhouettes, took to evolution, like the environments they thrive in. Making their way down the runway, KEEN’s latest shoes did so not with the laden clack of your garden-variety sandals; lightweight and ultra-breathable, these sandals offer ample protection with rubber toe guards that feel more like a second skin than added bulk. 

Kindred to Wade’s body of work, KEEN entwines the organic and the synthetic: the grounding awe of nature as a muse in crafting truly sustainable fashion, and the technological prowess that takes its performance higher. So tightly woven are these opposing forces in the world that they’ve created this season, one becomes indistinguishable from the other, breathing new life into familiar territory.

Discover KEEN’s collection of watershoes here.