I don’t know what it is about men that work in the eyewear industry that I find so fascinating. They always end up charming the pants of me (Well, not literally). Jason Kirk of Kirk Originals fits that mould to a T. He was so welcoming and pleasant when I met him at Karir Eyewear for the Kirk Originals media day.
Kirk Originals are known for their glittery frames and bright, saturated colours in materials like acetate and acrylic. Jason has a family history in the eyewear business so it made sense that he would follow in their footsteps. British based, Kirk Originals started in 1992. Currently, Jason and his wife Karen run the company from their home near Bordeaux, France. All frames are handmade in France also. Frames are architectural in shape and retro in design. Jason tells me that Kirk Originals isn’t for everyone and they really focus on their typical client.”The Kirk Originals wearer is creative, confident, irreverent and independent in their style choices,†says co-designer Jason Kirk. “We make glasses you can’t wait to put on in the morning.” I love that Jason understands that his product isn’t for everyone and doesn’t try to change that.
There are five lines in the Kirk Originals line up:
Kinetic – This line has lenticular images on each temple that produces a moving image effect
Kirk Heroes NG – This line takes a fun look at the Kirk’s family tree. The design is asymmetrical an inspired by a Kirk Hero.
Saturn – The Saturn line is one of my favourites. The surface has coloured crystals and the interior is covered in glitter. They aren’t for the faint of heart or wallflower.”
Sculpture – This line combines acetate and acrylic and the result is a large and varied colour palette
Sunglasses – The sunglasses collection takes design features from the Kinetic, Kirk Heroes and Saturn lines.
The first thing I noticed about Kirk Originals were the wide variety of colours. The Kirk Originals customer definitely isn’t looking for your classic black or tortoise shell frames. Jason pulled out trays and trays of brightly coloured frames for eyeglasses and sunglasses. The second thing I noticed was the glitter on the inside of the frames. It’s such a small feature but something that makes the frames stand out in a subtle way. Of course, I had to play dress up.
I’ve been on a crazy sunglasses kick this summer but I’m already planning my purchase. I love the Nymphette style in Ochre and gold glitter. Kirk Originals are available at Karir Eyewear boutiques. The price range is from $300 to $500. If you ever are in London, you should check out the Kirk Originals store. It’s has a great eyewear presenation wall design feature that looks really cool in photos. Jason was very proud of this and showed me photos on his laptop.
See all the photos from Jason Kirk Media Day at Karir Fashion Eyewear.
A fun fashion seminar where you’ll learn: how to score fab clothes that work for your body, how to spot a winner on the rack, and trade secrets to look taller, thinner and younger. “Women make decisions based on their self esteem and that includes their wardrobe choices.
At the end of the two hour FunShop, Burton will talk one-on-one with the group and answer any of your style questions. You can also bring in a troublesome outfit and get
her expert advice on how to pull it off- or how to create new looks from your go to wardrobe pieces.
A portion of proceeds from every FunShop will be donated to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Cardiac Survivor and 2011 Becel Heart and Stroke Ride For Heart Spokesperson-Sheryl Gill will also share her incredible survival story.
Sunday, July 17, 2:30 pm
Tuesday, July 19, 11:00 am
Wednesday, July 20, 7:00 pm
The Foundry Lofts
1100 Lansdowne Avenue
Toronto
Price: $40 for two hour FunShop
Register: Email info@racktorack.com to register and be sure to leave your name, Funshop date you would like to attend and number of tickets.
*Be one of the first 45 people to sign up & receive a gift bag from SoulBeautiful.ca filled with amazing style tools.
Uniform Wares is an London based luxury watch company. Product designers Patrick Bek and Oliver Fowles started the company in 2009. The company philosophy is based on classic British design that incorporates contemporary minimalism.
Uniform Wares 300 Series is their first chronograph watch. My favourite style of watch is the chronograph and I’m enamored with the minimal face and strap design. You can also buy different coloured straps for the watch if you wish to switch it up.
The colours in this editorial for Dazed & Confused’s July 2011 issue are so rich.  The flowers are a perfect backdrop for the colourful clothing worn by model Lisanne de Jong. The editorial was shot by Viviane Sassen.
Some people in The Fashion Spot forums were complaining that Lisanne’s face was covered in most shots. I thought it was refreshing that her face wasn’t the focus of the shots. Â It brought the clothing details to the forefront.
So Banana Republic and AMC are teaming up to create a limited edition collection inspired by Mad Men. Â Janie Bryant and Banana Republic designers worked together to create the 65 piece collection featuring men’s and women’s apparel and accessories. They will be available in Banana Republic stores across North America and online starting August 11, 2011.
“Working with Janie to gain a true understanding of the ‘Mad Men’ look and feel was a delight,†says Banana Republic Creative Director Simon Kneen. “Janie was instrumental in helping us achieve the series aesthetic and standard of authenticity with this capsule collection, offering sketches, her own inspirations and actual artifacts from the production set to help inspire the ‘Mad Men’ within all of us.â€
“Collaborating with Simon and his team to design this collection was an experience I’ll never forget,†says Bryant. “It’s so rewarding to help create a collection that will allow fans of the series to channel their own ‘Mad Men’ style and take home fashionable items that are modern, not costume.â€
Banana Republic send me some images from the lookbook. Very few pieces of the womenswear excite me and I think that the menswear is stronger and more interesting.
This is the only women’s outfit that interested me which is funny considering it’s a grey skirt suit and I can’t even see the front. Â Since this is only a taste of the collection here’s hoping that there are some more interesting women’s pieces to come.
The ‪Chanel Haute Couture Fall Winter 2011- 2012 fashion show video is out. Once again there is a grandeious set, perfect soundtrack and beautiful handcrafted clothing. I liked the collection so much more after seeing the video. The details are amazing.
Noc Kupały is a festival called Midsummer Night in English. They have a tradition of sending 1000s of paper lanterns in the air. It makes for spectacular video.
Midsummer Night , also called night kupalnÄ… , kupalnockÄ… , Kupala , Sobótka or sobótkami – Slavic feast associated with the summer solstice the Sun , celebrated the shortest night of the year, which is usually (not including leap year) from 21 to 22 June (later eve of St. John – also commonly called St. John’s at night and then having many borrowings from earlier holidays – is celebrated with a 23 to June 24 ).
Feast of fire, water, sun and moon, harvest, fertility, joy and love, celebrated in areas inhabited by the Slav peoples, Baltic, Germanic and Celtic, and also by some people coming from peoples Finno-Ugric peoples , such as the Finns (in Finland, St. John’s night is one of the most important holidays on the calendar), and Estonians. (source)
I’m very, very happy with my purchase. The MYKITA’s shape is understated but it’s necessary to offset the insanely bright blue colour. The blue lens casts a beautiful light on everything. It makes me happy. I get a lot of stares with these sunglasses. Hmm, that seems to happen with all my sunglasses these days. I’m getting a MYKITA bug now and I really want the Bernhard Willhelm red metal ones.
MYKITA‘s popularity is built on the snobbery of engineers. I laugh at this statement as Moritz Krueger and Philipp Haffmans describe their eyewear company’s rise in popularity. I met them at Josephson Opticians for MYKITA media day. They were in Toronto for a personal appearance and trunk show at the store. It’s rare to hear something that honest. So that kind of candor combined with the unstoppable ooze of cool the duo resonated made me like them immediately. How can you hate on a guy who can wear knickers and not look stupid? I thought it was physically impossible. I was wrong.
Philipp Haffmans and Moritz Krueger
MYKITA is a Berlin based eyewear company. Moritz and Philipp are two of the four co-founders with Daniel Haffmans and Harald Gottschling rounding out the quartet. The Berlin headquarters serves as homebase for all steps of the business from design, production and marketing. HQ is called the Workshop. MYKITA’s snob factor is based on their patented hinge design that removes the need for screws and soldering. Individual frame elements are cut from thin sheets of stainless steel. They are then manually shaped into a functional hinge. The result is an ultralight weight hinge with a number of fitting options for comfortable wearing. The hinge is the stuff of dreams for engineers and they took to bragging.
N01 collection
MYKITA produces a number of collections per season. The N01 collection debuted in 2004 and features all metal frames. Sport casual influences like 70s style skiers and oversize frames dominate the spring summer 2001 offerings. They also incorporate some elements of the 60s Nylor frame.
Decades Collection
The Decades collection looks to women’s eyewear from the 1950s and 60s in the butterfly Nylor style. I really like this spring summer 2011 style called Holly pictured above.
NO2 Collection
The N02 collection incorporates the patented MYKITA hinge and acetate. Spring summer 2011 influences include the 30s and the feminine with cat eye shapes. Â This style called Elsa is really nice too.
Lite Collection
The Lite collection features the lightest frames MYKITA produces. The frames are made from only three pieces. Spring summer 2011 influences include cycling, 1980s and recreational diving. Â Luxe is Mykita’s highest quality line that incorporates naturally sourced buffalo horn, platinum, white gold and other high-end material coatings.
2010 saw Mykita give birth to Mylon.  It’s a patented polyamide that is moulded into any shape desired via a process called Selective Laser Sintering. Form related limitations that conventional injection moulding tools face are non existent with Mylon.  The lightness of Mylon and its unlimited design potential leads to new frontiers in size and comfort.  The science nerd in me loved listening Moritz and Philipe talk all about the technical nature of their designs.  Science and fashion combined gets me every time so it’s not surprising that I love MYKITA.
MYKITA like to collaborate and their partners are in the world of fashion, beauty and art. Â Avant-guard designers like Bernhard Willhelm, Rad Hourani, Romain Kremer and Alexandre Herchcovitch regularly feature MYKITA sunglasses in their collections.
Bernhard Willhelm’s spring summer 2011 collaboration with MYKITA make use of the newly developed Mylon material.  Sausages and vintage scuba masks were the inspiration.  Moritz explained that Bernhard had a thing for the sausage shape and he really wanted to see that influence in the designs.  The result is some crazy oversized and super light sunglasses.  The scuba influnce on the collection continues right down to the model names. The three models in this collaboration are named after the famous french trio of divers, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Frederic Dumas and Philippe Tailliez. They aren’t my style but I kinda like the black ones.
Bernhard Willhelm and MYKITA also created metal based models. You might remember the gold aviators worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in the Sex and the City 2 movie. Well that’s Bernhard Willhelm x MYKITA . I initially thought they were kinda tacky, then I saw them in person and tried them on. Oh amazing. I love the totally not street legal red pair.
The MYKITA x Rad Hourani sunglasses were fun. They looked so much better on than I expected.
I got Andrew Sardone of Now Magazine to try on the Romain Kremer sunglasses. They looked great on him. I love the boxy shape of these and Rad’s.
I really loved the Alexandre Herchcovitch x MYKITA collection. They had the snob worthy metal hinge and bright colours. I ended ordering a pair at media day. They were too good to resist.
MYKITA and cosmetic company Uslu Airlines started collaborating in 2006 with their style of choice being the aviator. The names of the models are based on airport codes. The travel theme continues with the small suitcase packaging. The collection has three colour options: grey-brown, neon yellow and lilac. The Uslu Airlines x MYKITA collection also includes matching nail polish.
The sunglasses use the theme of iconic monuments. She used a fine line of gold paint to either draw the skyline of New York or pyramids of Giza horizontally across the lens. The collection is limited to 200 pairs. I really, really considered getting these but I felt the line would eventually drive me crazy.
