Karen Walker’s Makeup for Your Eyes
Karen Walker is using eyewear to bring her version of “eyeshadow” to market through her new collection of sunglasses.
“We wanted to play with the idea of going from eyewear to a beauty product…It gives the impression of a dusting of an eyeshadow over the eyes…rather than pale frames,” Walker said of the new Karen Walker Eyeshadow collection. She removed the rims from the glasses and made the lens colors “really soft and pared back” to create an illusion of makeup.
A collection of three silhouettes – a round, an aviator and a modern cat eye – are Walker’s answer to “makeup for your eyes” or “winter sunglasses” (because they “cut the glare” but are not dark enough to block from strong sun). Each frame, available in either silver mirror, tortoiseshell, marigold, pink or gold mirror lenses, ranges from $220 to $250. The collection hits karenwalker.com today and will enter Barneys New York, Nordstrom and Shopbop next week.
Walker teamed with MAC Cosmetics to create a campaign for the range – which coincided with the release of the beauty brand’s new Colour Rocker matte lipsticks. For each image, makeup artist Kiekie Stanners used a lipstick color that would “pop” with the featured pair of sunglasses (the round Disco Circus frames in light pink were paired with a model wearing Bunnybeams, chalky, light pink lipstick).
Walker said she thinks about these glasses as the new “essential tool in your makeup kit.”
These are just the latest sunglasses from Walker, who sees meaningful business coming from the eyewear category. Currently, about a third of her sales come from eyewear.
“People wear sunglasses, yes to protect their eyes from the sun, but it’s so much more than that now. It’s about making a statement and completing the look. Sometimes you want to just wear eyewear because it looks awesome with your outfit,” Walker said. “Sheer lenses and more transitional lenses-can actually become a fashion statement indoors and outdoors.”
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