This Italian brand built its cool on being a sort of fashion oxymoron: having one eye on the past and the other streaking ahead. Now, that cool is more accessible at its first Asia-exclusive webstore here.
This Italian brand built its cool on being a sort of fashion oxymoron: having one eye on the past and the other streaking ahead. Now, that cool is more accessible at its first Asia-exclusive webstore here.
"All Retrosuperfuture eyewear is handmade in Italy with parts from the best manufacturers, like Carl Zeiss and Barberini for lenses. And the brand doesn’t pay for celeb endorsements even when the stars are Kanye and Beyonce."
Just 11 years ago, the eyewear industry wasn’t what it is now. In Daniel Beckerman’s words, it was “pretty boring”, lacking colour and imagination. Seeing that he could make a difference, the Italian started Retrosuperfuture in 2007 for the kind of eyewear he wanted to wear and see: sunglasses in classic shapes and unfamiliar colours – uncommon at the time.
The first few styles, and subsequent ones, which were categorised under the Super brand, set the foundation for today’s bold eyewear trends. “We disrupted the industry and started a trend, which even more established brands like Ray-Ban hopped on to,” says Beckerman.
As is the case in every industry, once something has legs, more will follow, allowing consumers to get used to the new norm. This has helped Retrosuperfuture to continue pursuing its calling to offer “even more extravagant and fun designs” – and be one of the first to introduce collaborations with celebs, designers and other brands (among them are MSGM, Russian designer Gosha Rubchinskiy, Pigalle, and the Andy Warhol Foundation).
The only area the brand doesn’t push the envelope too much in is its glasses (called Opticals), which are in more classic styles and are lighter and thinner, because they are worn daily and for long hours. $250-$400 – RT
At press time, the URL of Retrosuperfuture’s Asia webstore was not yet available.
