At an impromptu meet in Paris, surrounded by luxury chain designs, more akin to jewellery than most collections we’ve come across, film director Jenny Suen tells me she found her first vintage eyewear chain at a flea market in Paris. She has worn it ever since as part of her signature look. “Over the years, so many people asked me where they could buy one,” she explains. “It occurred to me that there were no chains produced in fine materials or designed with the modern woman in mind. So when I finished my last movie, I decided to create my own.” Above: model wearing Coco (18K gold plated with freshwater pearls)
Launched this year, the debut collection is made with 18-carat gold and freshwater pearls, a tribute to the filmmaker’s/designer’s hometown of Hong Kong, a city known as “Pearl of the East.” Offering sleek lines evoking the city’s iconic skyscrapers, and a romantic modern feminine design, the three launch pieces are named after women for whom Suen has special admiration: Marguerite (Duras), Coco (Chanel), and Faye (Wong).
“Long associated with secretaries, forgetful grandmas, and stuffy librarians, Lien re- imagines the eyewear chain for the modern woman. Once a practical tool to keep optical glasses and sunglasses from the lost and found, the eyewear chain is now a statement-making piece of jewellery for visionaries who imagine, travel, and create….”
Lien Atelier is stocked at Kite Shoreditch (UK), Marc Le Bihan (France) and Kapok Sun Street (Hong Kong). The name “Lien” means “link” in French and Chinese.
About the founder: Jenny Suen is a Hong Kong director. She wrote, produced, and co-directed The White Girl with legendary cinematographer Christopher Doyle. The film stars Joe Odagiri and Angela Yuen in a tropical-noir love story set in the last fishing village of Hong Kong. It screened at festivals worldwide, including a world premiere at at the BFI London Film Festival, was nominated for a NETPAC award at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, and had a special premiere at the Singapore International Film Festival, where it was lauded as an “accomplished first feature from Suen, [heralding] the coming of a new director with the potential to add truly unique offerings to the Hong Kong film canon.” Suen also produced Hong Kong Trilogy, a portrait of the city’s residents in childhood, youth, and old age, which was directed by Doyle. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015. Her next film will be a widely-anticipated Chinese remake of Vera Chytilova’s 1968 Czech New Wave masterpiece Daisies. For more details visit www.lienatelier.com CN