“A Very Pure Development”: Catherine Holstein on Khaite’s Collaboration with Oliver Peoples

Catherine Holstein has been busy. Since successful the CFDA’s American Womenswear Designer of the 12 months final November, the Khaite founder and artistic director is opening her first retail retailer (designed in collaboration along with her husband, architect Griffin Frazen), the place she debuted her Fall/Winter 2023 assortment on Sunday, all whereas getting ready to welcome the couple’s first youngster. Her newest venture? A collaboration with luxurious eyewear model Oliver Peoples. 

“I couldn’t ask for a greater accomplice,” Holstein lately advised Self-importance Honest of the partnership. “We’ve a mutual respect for one another and the dialog began growing into the concept of a collaboration. It was a really pure development.” 

For Khaite, a model with its personal extremely coveted line of equipment, like the Davis boot and uniquely formed luggage just like the Olivia and Lotus, sun shades had been an instinctive subsequent step. That includes an completely designed corewire – the a part of the eyeglass body that helps the temples retain form and hook up with the lenses – impressed by the {hardware} in Khaite’s luggage, the creation of every pair concerned a double embedding course of with two items of metallic in between two layers of acetate on the outside.

The gathering boasts three types, every designed to encapsulate a special period and to cater “to that girl who’s very mysterious and darker, like a Brigitte Bardot or Jane Birkin,” Holstein says. The 1969C focuses “on the mod motion greater than the rest, the place you get a really sharp, skinny body,” Holstein provides. The 1971C and the 1983C characteristic wider, extra ovular shapes, introducing a mode that’s “just a little bit greater, and just a little extra glam,” she says, leaning on musical icons for inspiration. “David Bowie is at all times a primary affect aesthetically on the subject of confidence and danger.”

Although they’re impressed by totally different eras in trend, the sun shades stay a basic accent, irrespective of the fashion. “Oliver Peoples has at all times been recognizable for a timeless aesthetic that champions craftsmanship above logos and tendencies,” says Rocco Basilico, CEO of Oliver Peoples, “each manufacturers discovered a commonality in honoring fashion that may at all times be related.” 

The marketing campaign takes the model in a brand new path, photographed by Hanna Tveite on worldwide mannequin and muse Steinberg, and artistic directed by Holstein, it delves into the alter ego and the moody, mysterious Khaite aesthetic via the Oliver Peoples lens. “Every little thing we do has a darkness to it,” Holstein says as they needed to discover one thing “a bit sharper, and edgier than your typical eyewear marketing campaign.” 

The Oliver Peoples x Khaite Eyewear Collaboration is now out there for buy on Khaite and Oliver Peoples‘ web sites.

Khaite x Oliver Peoples 1969C

Khaite x Oliver Peoples 1971C

Khaite x Oliver Peoples 1983C