Anna Sui's New York Fashion Week show features P.E.I.-made sunglasses

Made-in-P.E.I. sunglasses hit New York Fashion Week Wednesday night at Anna Sui's show for her fall 2016 collection.


The glasses were designed by Sui in partnership with eyewear company Mondottica, and the sample run of 16 sunglasses was made in Guernsey Cove, P.E.I., by Fellow Earthlings sunglasses.

"It's been amazing," said co-owner Sydney Seggie. "[Sui] is a true designer, full of great ideas, and always setting us off in interesting directions."

The glasses from last night's show are round and encrusted with stones, with hearts or stars on the sides.

This isn't Seggie's first partnership with Sui. Fellow Earthlings has made the sunglasses for six of Sui's shows over the past five years.

"In the past we've done some pretty fun ones like ski masks and other really interesting products," she said.

The P.E.I.-made sunglasses have also been produced for other fashion designers, from as far away as Hong Kong and Finland — as well as other partners in Canada.

Seggie said Fellow Earthlings is able to operate as the producer for samples and small runs — of up to about 100 pairs of glasses — offering designers an alternative to factories.

"We like to do quality versus quantity," she said. "We definitely like to work on custom and sampling … we're happy to be able to do it here on the Island."

Cool sunglasses made in Indiana

Robinson also pointed out that his sunglasses appeal to people who are earth- and eco-friendly, because they use what he called "ethically sourced wood" — meaning it wasn't chopped down in an endangered forest.


Robinson's company's name is a throwback to his early days of designing, when people would take his sunglasses off his head to try them on. "People really desired them and I was really influenced by European fashion, so I put a twist on it, called it DESIAR," he said.

Robinson has been making custom sunglasses since his freshman year at the University of Central Florida. He left Florida in 2008 to return to Indiana, where he made his sunglasses on a kitchen table, but never gave up his dream of starting his own business.

That dream came true when he founded DESIAR in Fort Wayne in 2011. Robinson says the company, which employs 3, is the first to manufacture eyewear in Indiana.

His "Hoosier" sunglass made in Huntertown, Ind., sports an all-wood frame utilizing cherry wood harvested from a farm on the East Coast. It retails for $125 and is the first product in the #MadeInIndiana line.His sunglasses have a unique look. Most are made of wood and acetate and are manufactured overseas. But his recently launched #MadeInIndiana collection is made right in the Summit City.

"I'm always trying to think of what type of materials can we use that are out of the norm," Robinson said. "Wood's a really cool medium."

Kendall Jenner looks fresh

Wearing thigh-high boots, the star covered up against the cold winter in Blighty in a long black coat, and kept her head down past cameras.



Wearing a top knot that will give her niece North competition, Kendall looked effortlessly glam in yet another over the top airport outfit.

Kendall Jenner is fast becoming a strong contender for queen of the 2015 catwalk, and she showed off some of her edgier style as she landed in London this week.

The reality star turned model hid behind huge sunglasses and a fluffy scarf as she strolled through Heathrow - appearing to have taken yet more style advice from Karl Lagerfeld.

The brunette beauty was flying solo on this occasion, after having reunited with her BFF Cara Delevingne during the week.

The stunners posted a puzzling video together on Instagram on Thursday.

It featured the pair sat on a double bed with one another while enjoying a girls' night in.

But there was certainly some strange behaviour going on as the pair pretended to be birds.

It wasn't quite clear what was going on, but each time a mysterious voice from behind the camera said 'forest', Kendall and Cara channelled their inner-birds.

We miss Kendall/Cara time.

Several Reasons to love eyewear

TOUGH BUT CUTE GLASSES FOR KIDS

Kids by Safilo (safilo.com/kids) is among the lines devoted to correcting the vision of infants to 8-year-olds because one in six children experience visual defects that if uncorrected by the age of 8 could lead to blurred vision throughout adulthood, according to the company. Those first eight years are the most important, so it’s important not just to have options but to have options that are durable, comfortable, attractive and did we mention durable? This newly launched line of cutie patootie frames has been road-tested for wearing while napping, snuggling and bouncing around playgrounds.



KID- AND KLUTZ-PROOF

Aspire Eyewear recently launched a collection of extremely lightweight frames that have the look and styling of popular plastic frames but they are thin, pliable and surprisingly strong. You can take the lenses and bend them like a pretzel, although we wouldn’t really advise it. If a maniac toddler makes a grab for your face, you’ll still have to clean the smudges but you won’t have to replace your frames. There are 12 new styles in three colors ranging in price from $240 to $380. The line is sold at Mulqueeny Eye Centers, 812 North New Ballas Road, Creve Coeur, and Cusumano Vision Center, 317 Clarkson Road, Ellisville.

WOOD IS GOOD

There are a number of companies making frames the old, old-fashioned way with wood and horn. There’s a natural beauty to the horn and natural lightness to the wood, and according to Woodzee, a maker of such frames, the arms actually adjust to your face based on the warmth of the skin, so they get better with age. Frames for prescription lenses ($100) at woodzee.com are crafted with a mix of recycled buffalo horn and beech, zebra, pear or maple woods. Or skip the animal byproducts and choose the frames of wood and a plant-based cellulose acetate. And when you want new frames, you can mail back your original pair in exchange for 40 percent off new frames.

Chanel edges closer to ecommerce with online sunglasses shop

French atelier Chanel has unveiled its first ecommerce Web site for the fashion division in the United States to sell its sunglasses collection.



Instead of a category-wide launch of ecommerce, Chanel has taken a slower path to brand-operated commerce by offering first skincare and beauty products, and now entry-level sunglasses to test the waters. Launched on Nov. 4, Chanel takes a holistic approach by creating an omnichannel ecommerce experience to complement its bricks-and-mortar boutiques to better serve consumers through enrichment and customization.

In the lens of Chanel

Chanel’s eyewear ecommerce site is accessible from the U.S. chanel.com homepage and launched with the brand’s complete range of sunglasses. The site also includes exclusive editorial content and nods to service expected from the House of Chanel.

Chanel’s first edition features actress Lily-Rose Depp, the face of the 2015 Pearl eyewear collection (see story). The content goes behind-the-scenes of Ms. Depp’s campaign with creative director Karl Lagerfeld and as she discovers Gabrielle Chanel’s apartment at 31 rue Cambon.

The section will also underscore the craftsmanship and artistry of Chanel sunglasses and how the designs reflect the house’s codes. Chanel has produced eyewear since 2000, when it partnered with Luxottica Group.