Ephemera

MONCLER GENIUS Teams with Hiroshi Fujiwara

July 16, 2021

Moncler has returned with a new addition to their Genius line, this time with brilliant Japanese designer, Hiroshi Fujiwara. The collection, titled 7 MONCLER FRGMT HIROSHI FUJIWARA, will come with several drops, the first of which is influenced by a lighter, mid-season utility, featuring bombers, puffers, workwear jackets, and other outerwear items reflecting the innovative streetwear style of Fujiwara.

Beyond outerwear, the collection also features brand new interpretations of the iconic Converse Chuck 70 and Jack Purcell sneakers and a selection of beanies and bucket hats, which fall perfectly in place with the overall sleek yet transformative streetwear aesthetic of the collaboration.

The collection is accompanied by a superbly animated and thoughtfully directed short film conceptualized by Fujiwara and directed by ODD JOB featuring Japanese actor Tomohisa Yamashita.

Text by Deren Owji
Photos courtesy of Moncler

The film, which is shot with a two-dimensional, two-tone graphic design backdrop, presents the collection through the journey of Yamashita through a nightclub, “Genius of Love,” where he encounters the joy and action of nightlife through the lens of club-goers. The film concludes with a shot of Fujiwara in the club playing guitar, wearing the flagship of the collection’s first drop: a classic Moncler down jacket adorned with text saying, “WOM: World of Moncler.” This closing shot serves as a final nod to the brand’s deep-rooted, idiosyncratic heritage paired with their constantly forward-looking innovation in design.

Check out the film below.

Fashion

Through the lens of Lexxola

July 15, 2021

Throw on a pair of sunglasses and view the world through yellow-tinted lenses. Built for the city, and definitely made to transform any outfit, Lexxola takes modern designs and pairs them with a retro twist. These timeless shades can be seen gracing the faces of Dua Lipa, Emma Chamberlain, and Kendall Jenner , not to mention being rocked by your favorite it-kids on every corner from SoHo, NY to Melrose in LA. Lexxola is constantly pushing boundaries and adhering to what its community wants. Based in London, but not limited to its borders, Lexxola is leading the market and surely taking over the world.

CEO of the cult-classic sunglasses, Zane Saleh, speaks on how Lexxola came to be through the pandemic, and also how the use of a community-based social media platform was a golden ticket to their success through trying times. With newer unisex styles such as the “Antonio,” and classics such as the “Damien” and the “Jordy,” Lexxola’s frames are more than just a trend, but an everyday staple to be worn by everyone.

Text by Cassandra Jekanoski
Interview by Tiana Randall and Cassandra Jekanoski
Photos courtesy of Lexxola

Read our exclusive interview below.

How did Lexxola start? What sparked that inspiration to start Lexxola?

The way eyewear was sold to my generation — the Gen Z was this idea of that sunglasses are all about summer and the seasonal product. When actually from my experience, growing up in the city, sunglasses were used for tools all year round. And then from that point, it started to dig a little bit deeper into what was available in the market. And then we figured out that there was two other main issues that we were seeing. Second of all, the industry is extremely outdated. So today's approach really felt like it was based on past realities rather than future possibilities. I worked for companies like Ray`Ban, etc that had no need to innovate, which would left us feeling a little bit like there was nothing, no newness within the market. And then, third of all, it was this real lack of inclusion and community. It felt like this gap between brands, sort of reflected this kind of distant andhierarchical approach. And it just seems to me, personally, from people that were around me felt that brands, especially eyewear brands, weren't mirroring today's society, especially for the Gen Z and the millennials. So we set up basically to create something that was better. And I think that over the last couple of years, it's really resonating with our customers, which is great.

And you talk about the sunglass industry being outdated and wanting to build inclusivity within this community, but when was the exact moment that you thought 'Okay, I'm going to take this leap and do this.' And why was it that specific time?

I suppose this is like from a personal perspective in my life, I've always been quite entrepreneurial. I can't say that it was one of those moments where I said 'I'm going to drop everything and go for this.' But it was more of an exploration process where I started to have this feeling about creating something which people would love. And I started working on it alongside my job. I was previously working in art, and it compound and compiled up into a point where I left my job and I was all in. And then since then we haven't really looked back.

So there's been so many achievements, I'm sure you guys have had. I've seen people like Kendall Jenner, wearing them, but what was like the coolest achievement and experience you've had when working with Lexxola?

This is a hard one. It's really hard to narrow it down to one thing. Looking a couple of weeks ago at the moment we were building out ads, a lot of brand documents for various people that work with us. And one of the things that we looked at was how many people are wearing our products, and one of the coolest things that we found out recently was that we've sold in over 1800 cities around the world. That was something crazy to us because building this when you're in the day-to-day of things, what we do, we forget what's happening around us because we're bogged down in all the detail. And then finding out that especially within the office, we're just like, wow, we're actually building something which is impacting people's lives in such a positive way. Ultimately what we try and do is to build products that inspire confidence and make people feel great. As we compound and grow over time, we are able to deliver that feeling to more and more people. I think ultimately that is the coolest thing for us.

I've been a long time supporter and follower of Lexxola. I remember getting my first pair in March of 2020, so right even before the pandemic hit, I was super excited to get my first pair, but so I've been first-hand been able to see the continuous growth of your brand. What would you say has been the key to your growth even through the pandemic and such a troubling time?

If someone said to me that if we were, you know, six months into us selling our business, I believe a pandemic would happen, I would say this is going to be a huge issue. But we were uniquely placed in the sense that with all the terrible things that have happened during the last year, people have gone back and expressed themselves digitally. People are connecting by Tik Tok and expressing themselves. In a way, we wereuniquely placed for that, which was just purely out of luck. Internally I think what's actually allowed us to continue to grow and continue to build our community who has been our fearless approach to change that comes from a product side of the business where we don't follow the traditional fashion hierarchical approach of creating product.

We speak to those customers, or we aggregate data and feedback and produce based on that information. The way we call it internally is sort of some action somewhere between a brand and a service company. What we try and do is bring products that customers want rather than what we think they want. I think that's allowed us to bring product that has really resonated with our community.

What do you think made Lexxola stand out from the rest, because honestly, I haven't seen such a surge in sunglasses since Lexxola started, especially through social media. So what attributes do you think you hold?

Ultimately I think what has been really the catalyst for a lot of the growth has been these amazing relationships that we've been able to form with both our customers and the influencers or inspiring people that we work with. It definitely comes down to the approach that we've taken. We've really managed to form friendships with these individuals who have been sharing our product. It's become this snowball effect where wearing Lexxolas feels like you're part of something more than just a brand or a product. The community of people who were all expressing themselves and it's more than just the product. We've just been able to cultivate that by building these amazing relationships. It's seeing influence not as people, but as followers. Because we've taken a real human approach to the way we've developed relationships, it just means we have a lot of success in getting that organic growth.

You spoke about creating this community in a sense, and working with certain people, what qualities do these people have that you admire that makes them want to be a part of your world? And what does this world even look like?

Difficult to say. It's more of a feeling than just specific qualities. Ultimately we want the people we're working with to reflect modern society. So we ensure that we're being as inclusive across all verticals from an external perspective, as in working with people from all areas of life that do all different things. Whether they're musicians or fashion designers or just people that we really like and think are really interesting and have something going on. I think ultimately what we're trying to do is mirror today's modern society which is so diverse and interesting and rich in culture. And I think we try to find people that also reflect these values. I think that's ultimately what it comes down to when reaching out to the people that we work with. I think that's what it comes down to. Making sure that we're finding people that reflect our values.

And what are those values exactly? I wanted to kind of talk about brand responsibility and sustainability. What values and efforts are you taking towards brand responsibility specifically?

So we're responsible for a number of different areas. I can break it down from the entire supply chain to the point of sale. So in terms of our production, we have various practices in place that are really working towards our sustainable future. So for example, our factory is fueled by 100% renewable energy. So we have our factory in Italy covered in solar panels, which fuel 100% of the power through the summer months, and in winter we've been served with sort of around 80 to 90%. We have very stringent waste mitigation processes. I don't know how much you know about the production of eyewear, but there can be huge amounts of waste with acetate blocks, which quite often isn't recycled.

So we ensure that we've got the processes in place for that. And then moving across to our distribution center in terms of the product itself, we're using recycled packaging. Additionally, we have carbon-neutral warehousing and, we use integrated carriers, which were possible use of electric delivery vehicles. It's an increased cost to us, but we find it really important and we ensure we do that. Then in terms of the people that we work with and we have in-house, we have diversity across all verticals. Another thing that we're quite proud of is that we try to empower young leaders internally. We hire Gen Z. Who's better? What's really amazing about the Gen Zs is that they're extremely pragmatic and they're digital natives. For us to connect with our audience who are Gen Zs, we like to bring Gen Z's in-house and give them a lot of responsibility. And we've found that that's been an incredible experience, especially for me as a millennial, just to see. In terms of our sales we're donating some, 1% of our sales go to 1% for the Planet, which we serve a niche category within that, which is putting the money towards building better cities.

Where would you love to see your brand go within the next five years?

I think ultimately it's funny because if someone asked me that on day one, I would say, we want to be this really cool, amazing fashion eyewear company and, as time goes and the bar changes. I think ultimately what we want to become is the leading eyewear brand for Gen Z, and that might mean potentially we move categories and also offer optical frames. And I think that is potentially in the roadmap, but we want to be the go-to eyewear company for the Gen Z generation. That's certainly where we want to be, but there's a lot of work to do in between that. But I think that if you continue to withhold our values and continue to work hard we have a chance.