SOMA Magazine SOMA Fall Fashion Issue Oct 15 | Page 17
personality without being a substitute for one! Frames should
reflect one’s overall aesthetic without being the first thing that
someone notices. One of my biggest pet peeves is that people
don’t think about their overall style when selecting their eyewear.
You’ve been celebrated for your innovation in the engineering of your designs. What production technique(s)
set your work apart?
Capitalizing on engineering techniques has not only been integral to my collections, but has allowed me to design in new and
different ways. For my latest collection, two frames are made
separately and then laminated together using a proprietary technique. The inner frame has a very wearable silhouette, but the
outer frame is more directional. Looking from a distance, what
you see is the inner frame. As you get closer, you see the combination of the two, which gives the frame a whole new personality.
What is your process when collaborating with an existing
company that already has a unique brand identity?
It’s important that the essence of the collaborators’ aesthetic
is clearly identifiable, and to combine that with my own sense
of color, scale, and proportion so that my fingerprint is also
subtly evident.
The best collaborations allow for a creative flow. It’s the
bouncing of ideas back and forth that leads to the best result.
I’m working on one now that we plan to launch in Milan next year.
The other designer and I have very different design aesthetics,
but the resulting frames are clearly a hybrid of both!
How do you envision your designs having an impact on
our current landscape? Do you have an ideal wearer?
I have to admit that one of my motivations for starting my own
eyewear collection was to design for myself and my friends that
straddle both the creative and business worlds - artists, graphic
designers, architects, writers, photographers. While our passions are creatively based, we all have the business side to what
we do. My collection is really a mash-up of aesthetics: wearable
and classical shapes encased in trend-driven silhouettes. It’s a
blending of sensibilities with a compelling design tension.
A friend of mine said it best about wearing my frames:
“They’re perfect - I don’t want to look like I own an art gallery,
but I want to look like I visit one every once in a while.” My collection is for someone who has discriminating taste but doesn’t
want to look like they are trying too hard.
15