June 2013

Grace Woodward – Fashion Trendsetter

18th June 2013 Statuesque and stunning, Grace Woodward arrives for our meeting wearing a chic black dress, a fabulous gold necklace, and gorgeous Anna-Karin Karlsson sunglasses – she has a passion for beautiful accessories. The London based stylist and director of Grace Woodward Creative looks every inch the part of her busy life as a style coordinator, trend spotter and TV personality. She covered the Royal Wedding for Sky News, and does live fashion reporting from Glorious Goodwood and The York Races. She shares with Eyestylist her approach to being a trend developer.

“While some think that fashion people are all crazy, there are those who appreciate trend information in advance,” says Woodward, “and my antennae is usually about 1-2 years ahead. Then you have to turn this into stuff. Sometimes my timing is too far ahead – but all this does give a different perspective of the world. For Autumn/Winter 2013/14 everything is quite subdued, even for the luxury industry. There are only a few bursts of colour; otherwise everything is safe. It’s a reflection of the times. This is not the moment to step out and take risks.”

Woodward is a champion of the non-conformist. “In the last ten years, we’ve been bombarded with a desire for newness and that is stimulating; however, the flip side is that it’s too conformist. I admire an individual personality like Helena Bonham-Carter. Fashion can be a bit rigid, which you can see with the celebrity conformity. I’m also a proponent of quality, and there is nothing like saving up for something really good. What you wear is an expression of your personality. Fashion is about painting pictures.”

British designer Vivienne Westwood is the person who piqued Grace’s interest in fashion. “Westwood was my first awakening of fashion,” remember Woodward, “because she was about distinctive references. i love her clothes and still do. Alexander McQueen is also a favourite. i like people who want to be more. I feel so fortunate to be near to fashion and working in it – I like the proximity. We have to subvert the past to find the future. Christian Lacroix refers to the past – there is always something more going on in his designs.”

Grace Woodward also has a special kinship with eyewear. “If I don’t wear my glasses, people don’t recognise me! I love Anna-Karin Karlsson designs, Linda Farrow and Retrosuperfuture (top photo). I love clothes and eyewear – rather than ‘fashion’, and I see it as a way of self-expression. www.gracewoodward.com JG

Surf-ing sunglasses at School of Comics, Turin

15th June 2013 Nico Design presents a new series of images featuring design students from the International School of Comics, Turin. The shoot will appear in the next issue of the Vanni Magazine, which is out next week on the Vanni website; we absolutely love the pictures featuring comics and art works by the young artists, and we thank Nico Design for sharing them with Eyestylist.com and providing exclusive images.

The girls are wearing Vanni’s Surf-ing sunglasses (above), a new style for 2013 that delivers a youthful design and a yearning for hot summer days. Fitted with graduated nylon lenses developed in soft tones that match each frame colour, the collection cleverly reworks the texture of rock in metal, incorporating both a hammered effect and a high gloss finish.

For more on the Italian eyewear design label Vanni Occhiali and the special edition of the Vanni Magazine, launching next week, visit www.vanniocchiali.com CN

Swiss Designer Launches Debut Collection

13th June 2013 Susanne Klemm is a multi-talented woman – a contemporary jewellery designer, an optician and her latest venture is an exclusive eyewear collection. I so look forward to trying on these frames. When we spoke, Susanne, a Netherlands resident, related that she likes to design in 3D, with an unusual round shape, so it was difficult to find people who could produce these unique frames. With her tenacity she was able to find craftspeople in Venice who hand make the glamorous designs, using fine quality Italian acetate. Face the Face (above) is beautifully faceted with distinctive, strong angles.

Travels light features smaller rounded shaping, and the ultra smooth surface of the acetate provides a graceful tactile expression, and the design is particularly stunning in sea blue. For more about this exciting eyewear designer, visit www.suzyglam.com JG

Behind The Scenes…..

11th June 2013 Photo shoots are good fun, and hard work too! Photographers and models do get to take a welcome break on occasion. What do the models get up to when the photographer leaves his camera unattended? Well…..on a fashion shoot in Marseille, France for L.G.R. Sunglasses, the models made their own attempt at being the photographer, and were playing around with his camera.

The result is this lovely image of a model wearing L.G.R.’s new Keren CM (top photo). The sleek matt black frame features metal temples, and polarized petroleum mirrored lenses. The design is also available in Havana, with green and gold (above) and black with gold. Definitely a summer style statement! www.lgr-sunglasses.com JG

Bushakan stands for favourite frames

7th June 2013 I have not come across any other design companies that specialise in stands to hold frames and sunglasses in a stylish and tidy way. Based in San Francisco, Bushakan is run by Tobi Adamolekun and Lauren Van Horn, an architect and ex-lawyer whose hand-finished wood designs have quickly attracted attention in the smartest optical retail circles.

“We select the best grade wood available for our stands and currently use two types of wood, maple and walnut,” explains Tobi. ” The maple is a light wood with a unique combination of brown, tan, white and cream streaks. The streaks give it an amazing range as they reveal the natural characteristics of the wood by showing the broad range of grain colours. The walnut is darker, with a rich chocolate tone and sometimes hints of black, grey and crimson. It has a beautiful grain pattern and is the only dark brown hardwood grown domestically. We are committed to a sustainable model of production; through the whole process we use a special finish on each piece which maintains the beauty of the wood.”

At present the stands hold one, two, three or five frames, or you can choose a design that holds both a frame and iphone, a slick concept for very useful organisation at home. I have received the nicely proportioned three frame stand and the sleek single presentation stand this week, and both have instantly found a place in my work space at home, although the rest of the family seem to have their eye on them too. The Bushakan team are also working on some larger stands for LA’s Gogosha Optique – www.gogosha.com and Oklahoma’s Black Optical – www.blackoptical.com – and they plan to launch these later in the year. To buy online today, visit www.bushakan.com/collections/all  CN