Eye Spy ChairEYES
By Casey Hall
In three short years, a young Shanghainese designer has won over the country's style elite with his fashionable frames.
In a market traditionally dominated by established European designer brands, such as Gucci and Chanel, there has been a move in recent years for China's high-end style mavens in top tier cities to search out clothing, handbags and eyewear from independent, local designers.
This has been particularly good news for 26 year old Chair Yuan (Yuan Zhou), the visionary responsible for the vintage-inspired shapes of the CHairEYES designer eyewear brand. A soft-spoken, pony-tailed designer, he didn’t start out in eyewear, but he eventually fell into the glamorous glasses business.
After four years working as a stylist for companies such as MTV, Coca Cola and Channel V, Yuan decided it was time to do his own thing. A foray into designing street-wear ensued, before the born and bred Shanghai boy decided to do something a little different.
“I’d started collecting eyeglasses in 2003, and over the years built up a collection of interesting designs. And just by chance, in 2008 my clothing brand had a partnership with the boutique The Gloss [in Xintiandi],” Yuan explains.
“Later, the owner of The Gloss asked me if I wanted to do an annual eyewear series for them, so I changed my job again, working full-time on eyewear design. Our original glasses were produced in November 2008, with a run of 100 pairs sold just at The Gloss. We didn’t expect many people to buy them, but they did, and we kept moving ahead gradually.”
The handmade glasses, which are assembled in Japan using high quality materials and a traditional method of frame construction, soon made an impact beyond the rarefied air of Xintiandi, appearing in magazines such as Vogue, Elle and GQ, and garnering a fan base of 20-something trend-setters from around the country.
Yuan takes particular pride in the quirky, fun streak running through his unisex designs, but he is also adamant about wearability.
“I don’t like to design things that are too strange. I want CHairEYES glasses to be the kind of thing that people wear for a long time, rather than just another disposable product. In the future we’ll create a new product line in conjunction with a number of artists, designers and brands, which will be a bit more design oriented,” he says.
CHairEYES lines are proudly retro in feel and form, with Yuan taking his design cues from icons of the 60s and 70s, a trend which quickly becomes apparent as you scan the names of his collections – 'Lennon' and 'Jackie' both make an appearance.
Although the 'Jackie' line is Yuan's personal favourite, the break-out collection for the young brand has been the 'Hunk', which sold out after being spotted on some well-known faces – including one particular Hong Kong actress and Cantopop star of Edison Chen photo scandal fame.
“Cecilia Cheung wears that one sometimes,” Yuan says, nodding to the ‘Hunk’ design. “A year ago we sold every pair we’d made of that series, then waited another six months to sell them again, and now we’re on track to completely sell out again.”
Even with such high-profile advocates, there is no better advertisement for the brand than Yuan himself, who wears his glasses every day and obviously can't get over the lucky turn his career has taken.
“Before [my love of glasses] was an interest, now it is my job. It's great!”
All glasses are priced at RMB 990 per pair. Available from Younik (Bund 18, 2F, 18 Zhongshan Dong Lu, near Nanjing Dong Lu. Tel: 6323 8688) & The Gloss (Shop 5, 1F, Bldg 6, Lane 123, Xinye Lu, near Madang Lu). Tel: 6384 1066.
Web: www.chaireyes.com
