I was born in a farming village near Londrina, in Southern Brazil in the mid-sixties just a year after the establishment of the military dictatorship. The state of Paraná is a rich land, with many colours: volcanic soil reds, dark brown rivers, coffee plantation greens, sky blues, sunset clouds oranges, exotic fruits and vegetables, giant horned beetles, poisonous spiders, birds and butterflies, in all the colours imaginable. At night, the darkest of blacks was lit up by the millions of stars and the neon fireflies. Ever since I can remember I had a pen, a colouring pencil or a marker in my hands; trying to capture and make sense of it all.
My mother wasn't very happy with the idea that I was an artist   . As a newly converted Pentecostal, any kinds of decoration or distraction were strictly forbidden, especially the kinds of images found in those idolatrous art books that I loved so much.
My father, on the other hand, encouraged me to be anything I wanted, especially since he knew I would never be another Pelé, (although I am named after him) and after a while my mother relaxed a little bit too, since playing football was an even more serious sin than drawing.
So, after a while they accepted the situation and bought me an easel and as much paint and paper I wanted. My father would even get them framed and submitted to local exhibitions. Although very few were accepted, I settled instead for making art for the   "delight" of family and friends, who would get another fabulous ‘Edson’ painting for Christmas.
Eventually I managed to move to Rio de Janeiro (Babylon   ) in 1985 at the end of the dictatorship, where I studied Fashion and Textiles. Following Paco Rabanne's advice after he reviewed my portfolio when I attended a talk one day  , I went to work as an illustrator for some of the best fashion houses at the time, in a marble and glass modernist office in Ipanema Beach. Meanwhile, I was still talking in an almost undecipherable farmer’s accent, living on black coffee, Diet Coke and smoking Marlboro Lights to fit into the brand’s identity.
Not happy, I accepted an invitation from Kalma Murtinho to work as an illustrator for a very large theatre adaptation of The Three Musketeers. I remember the first time I went to her flat, and thinking how odd it was that top of her grand piano she had dozens of little statues, mostly of the same kind. They turned out to be her Air France costume design awards.
So I left fashion to go work with her  but I have a suspicion that the reason had less to do with her awards and more with food. She would feed me three meals a day and we had siestas after lunch, afternoon teas with homemade Jabuticaba jam, and a beer in the evening while watching our soap operas. Soap operas are very important in Brazil. 
Afterwards, I worked in dozens of plays, tv and cinema, and was even nominated for my own designer award. Then went to work on Carnaval for the giant colourful and glittery Samba Schools of Rio with my beloved former teacher Rosa Magalhães.
Then in the mi-nineties I  had an invitation to work with fashion again and I moved to the United States then the UK . After decades of living away from the colours of Parana and Carnaval, the colours I had known all my life started to fade away and look foreign to me, until now. 

The House of Edson was created to celebrate the intense and joyful colours of Brazilian life and culture and the sense of ‘home’ they provide for me.