There is irony in the word “Eadem.” When I first heard the Latin term while on a trip abroad, it was used in reverence in the context of the 16th century British monarchy. Known to refer to equanimity and stability, the word signifies a perpetual sameness or precedence. A little digging revealed that it was the motto of Anne Boleyn, Cambridge’s Trinity College, and the HMS Queen Elizabeth. The word presents a sort of monolith. It’s also now an autantonym, a word which one meaning is the reverse of the other. A new brand named Eadem will rewrite how we view sameness. Launched this week by two women of color, Marie Kouadio Amouzame and Alice Lin Glover, Eadem is backed by a Glossier grant and Sephora’s 2021 program.
