The Theophilio x Warby Parker J’can-inspired sunnies hit the market
Loop Lifestyle couldn’t overlook the evident nod to Brand Jamaica by Kingston-born NY-based designer Edvin Thompson.
Thompson, the founder and creative director of the Brooklyn-based fashion label Theophilio, is in the limelight again with the release of the Warby Parker x Theophilio sunglasses collection that just dropped.
“These sunglasses are like a memoir for me,” Thompson stated about his inspiration for the collab.
“I see my adolescence and my parents in them, but I also see the shape of things still to come. This collaboration is all about where I’m coming from as a designer and where I’m going next.”
Warby Parker (WP) has also commented on the creative process, noting how they “translated designer Edvin Thompson’s memories of home into a genre-bending frame named Shaunie”.
The Shaunie – Thompson’s nickname in Jamaica – is ‘nostalgia made novel’, according to statements made by the brand.
It’s a marriage ‘of ’70s and ’00s influences’ with ‘new-age elements’ that combine three tonal colourways, reflecting Thompson’s childhood in Jamaica.
The three options retail for US$145 and are all or partly inspired by flavourful tropical fruits (think: soursop, lime, mango).
Theophilio’s brand director, Antoine Gregory, founder of Black Fashion Fair, a media, commerce and high culture platform, made the connection between brands.
Gregory previously partnered with WP for the 2022 release of his Black Fashion Fair magazine.
“Warby Parker has been an exciting partner since we launched our inaugural publication with them in 2022,” Gregory exclusively told WWD.
“I think it’s imperative that Black designers have the same access to resources and opportunity as their peers. Warby Parker wanting to collaborate with Theophilio is something they believed in fully and so did the team at Theophilio. I am happy to have been a part of this journey with Edvin and Warby Parker. I am excited about the work Black Fashion Fair does and continues to set a standard for.”
Since its debut in 2016, the up-and-coming fashion brand, set on a mercurial rise, has checked several notches on fashion’s totem pole.
The 2021 CFDA Fashion Awards American Emerging Designer of the Year, a subsequent partnership with the inaugural Black Fashion Fair magazine, a statement-making fashion week runway presentation, and now a brand deal with Warby Parker.
