The effects of vintage’s popularity have already been felt in shoes, handbags and clothing, with fashion houses racing to keep up with youth culture trends that Millennial and Gen Z consumers discover on the secondhand market. Now the eyewear sector, particularly sunglasses, is beginning to feel vintage’s impact.
Hadid’s specs often come from Treasures of NYC, an Instagram store run by Brittany Blanco and Robert Bird that has grown to nearly 260,000 followers. While a few years ago the two say that eyewear was not a major focus for them, over the past year sunglasses have become a “staple” on their page. Blanco from Treasures of NYC added: “You see things go from teeny tiny and then it shifts into this giant shield style again. It happens so quick that it’s kind of dangerous for these larger companies with production timelines because they aren’t able to snap their fingers and produce styles on-trend in a month.”
“Honestly, yes, we should speed up,” said Matteo Battiston, chief design officer at Luxottica. “But we do have a point of strength compared to independent eyewear brands that have just one story to tell. If you have a wide portfolio you can play with different stories and it’s less amplified,” he said.While the majority of eyewear consumers are looking for styles they can wear every day, there are a growing number of shoppers seeking out what Zotta calls “extraordinary shapes.
Marcolin’s product development director Alessandro Beccarini said over email: “Our design teams are always looking to the brand’s DNA and to past designs, but the key is to reinvigorate things with both a modern spirit and technology. We know that the average customer keeps their eyewear for over two years and wears it daily. What else do you have in your closet that you wear daily? Possibly nothing you wear more frequently than your glasses.