Is Gentle Monster the coolest eyewear brand around today? We certainly think so! The Korean company has been riding an accelerating wave to success ever since its emergence in 2011. Today their ultra edgy sunglasses can be seen on everyone from Rihanna to Chanel Iman, and their success shows no signs of waning. Founder, Hankook Kim said the company was created with Korean A-listers in mind: “they felt that the designs accentuated their features and looked great on camera,” he told NY Magazine.
Gentle Monster sets its focus on luxury and experimentation, with some of its most popular frames championed by the likes of fearless fashion forces like Lady Gaga. Fortunately, they do simplicity as well as they do the avant-garde, meaning they truly have a frame for everyone.
Last year they opened a flagship store in NYC’s Soho to much hype and hubbub. As with the product design, the brick-and-mortar stores are artistic ventures in themselves. Famed for their lavish, star-studded openings, they comprise a modern mixture of carefully curated indie artwork and high-end interiors. What’s more, their marketing team are craftily innovative when it comes to targeting the social media-fuelled generations:
their NYC store, with its fountain and shifting light installations was specifically designed to encourage Instagram snapshotting.
Gentle Monster keeps itself firmly rooted in the fashion pack’s agenda through a series of painstakingly hip collaborations that include previous pairings with cool-kid labels like Opening Ceremony, Tome, Henrik Vibskov and Hood By Air.
Currently, we are swooning over their latest collab with acting royalty, Tilda Swinton, which includes the effortlessly all-occasions EYE EYE frames seen here.
Releasing around 30 to 40 styles each year, the glasses are made of sturdy cellolose acetate that easily adjusts to any facial structure, plus every pair has discreetly hidden nose pads to stop any dreaded slippage in the sweaty summer sun.
No word on a London-based flagship yet, but Gentle Monster is currently available online and at Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge.
Written by Thea Carley
