Warby Parker Partners with New York Fashion House to Create Sunglasses Inspired by Designer’s Jamaican Childhood

New York fashion house Theophilio and Warby Parker have joined to produce Shaunie sunglasses, a limited edition line of eyewear inspired by the Jamaican heritage and childhood of Brooklyn-based fashion designer, Edvin Thompson, in Kingston, Jamaica.

Thompson’s inspiration

The name of the new eyewear line comes from the nickname given to Thompson in childhood. He has combined elements of nostalgia and futuristic design in the Shaunie line. He was also inspired by a photograph of his father taken in the early 2000s as he boarded a plane to fly from Jamaica to the United States. The resulting design features a rectangular, oversized silhouette that reminds Thompson of his upbringing in Kingston, Jamaica. They are like a “memoir” to him, he said, adding that he sees his teen years and his parent in the design along with the “shape of things still to come.” He described the collaboration with Warby Parker as being about his roots as a designer and where he will next take his designs.

Notable features of the eyewear

The Shaunie line pieces are made by a process in which opaque acetate is laminated over a translucent material. This is the first time Warby Parker has used this approach, which creates a unique outline effect around each lens of the eyewear. The sunglasses will be available to buy in various colors – Shade, Lemon Slice, and Sorrel – at select stores in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Toronto, and at warbyparker.com and the Warby Parker app. Each Shaunie pair sold will contribute to Warby Parker’s “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” program that provides glasses to individuals in need.

Warby Parker honored to work with Theophilio

The co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, Neil Blumenthal, said it was an honor to help the fashion house enter the eyewear space. According to Blumenthal, the frames the companies made jointly reflect a “perfect synthesis” of the frame-maker’s expertise and the designer’s personal aesthetic. The Shaunie color option, “Soursop,” will be available exclusively at Black Fashion Fair, where the two brands first met in 2022. The brand director at Theophilio, Antoine Gregory, is the founder of Black Fashion Fair, a media, commerce, and high culture platform where Black designers and Black-owned brands can make discoveries. Gregory added that Black designers needed to have the same kind of access to opportunities and resources as others in the fashion industry, and Warby Parker’s desire to collaborate with Theophilio supported that imperative.