TO SEE · 10/13/2014
To celebrate the fall collection, a bunch of us got together and made a little video.
Then one of us got extra-inspired and illustrated a few stills from the video.
To celebrate the Fall Collection, a bunch of us got together and made a little video.
Then one of us got extra-inspired and illustrated a few stills from the video.
Don’t they look great?
(Hat-tip to our good-looking star, Darius!)
TO SEE · 09/08/2014
Fashion Week is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get, and sometimes it’s a weird gross chocolate filled with rum cordial, but sometimes it’s one of these and you’re golden. The risk is half the reward.
For this season’s Fashion Week outing, Opening Ceremony’s Humberto Leon and Carol Lim …
Fashion Week is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get, and sometimes it’s a weird gross chocolate filled with rum cordial, but sometimes it’s one of these and you’re golden. The risk is half the reward.
For this season’s Fashion Week outing, Opening Ceremony’s Humberto Leon and Carol Lim offered up a big old chocolate filled with Spike Jonze, Jonah Hill, Elle Fanning, Karlie Kloss, and a bunch of other delectable delights. So much tastier than rum cordial.
It happened like this: rather than do the standard wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am runway show, the Opening Ceremony crew got their friends Spike Jonze and Jonah Hill to co-write an original 45-minute play to be performed on one night only with actors in Opening Ceremony gear. Along with Fanning and Kloss, the cast included Catherine Keener (swoon), Rashida Jones, Alia Shawkat, John Cameron Mitchell (mega swoon), Bobby Cannavale and Dree Hemingway. And because O.C. is nothing if not detail-oriented, the whole performance took place at the Metropolitan Opera House beneath 21 twinkling chandeliers.
Oh! And the clothes—the clothes were real good. Mint-chip green shifts, bubblegum separates, little bit of neoprene, a lotta ponytails, wedges, graphic coats and a print we might describe as “hacker camo”. The cherry on top? Some of the models were styled with Warby Parker frames.
We laughed, we cried, and like a proud parents, we snapped a few photos of our frames on the big stage. They look so grown-up.
Photos: Julieta Cervante (top) and Dana Melanz (bottom)
TO SEE · 09/03/2014
Guys! We made a video. For fun! And to preview our Fall 2014 collection!
Guys! We made a video. For fun! And to preview our Fall 2014 collection! And you can watch it right here.
It all started with Darius, who is the fine gentleman you see pictured above. Darius works in one of our retail stores. A member of the creative team spotted him in the store, got obsessed with his cool vibe, and asked him if he wanted to do a project. This is that project.
We filmed it over the course of a day, fueled by donuts and coffee. It combines a few things that are beloved by Warby Parker: naps, cake, mysteries, extreme sports, and really nice glasses.
In case you’re wondering, Darius performs all of his own stunts.
TO BUY · 07/15/2014
July 9th is a huge day in history. There was the birth of David Hockney (in 1937), the Battle of Normandy (in 1944), the opening of Andy Warhol’s Soup Cans show (in 1962) and the release of Donkey Kong (in 1981).
July 9th is a huge day in history. There was the birth of David Hockney (in 1937), the Battle of Normandy (in 1944), the opening of Andy Warhol’s Soup Cans show (in 1962) and the release of Donkey Kong (in 1981). It was also the day before the release of our collaboration with Into The Gloss, and the date of a dinner party to celebrate. We’re not comparing the dinner to Donkey Kong; we’re just putting it in a context.
We’d spent a year laboring (lovingly) on two pairs of aviators with Into The Gloss founder Emily Weiss and her co-founder Nick Axelrod, so celebrating their release date was like popping the cork on a bottle of seriously fizzy champagne.
We took over the garden room of the Waverly Inn, which is a bit like the Conservatory in Clue: tile-floored, airy, filled with lush plants. (Key difference: nobody has been murdered there.) It’s lovely on a warm summer night.
Glasses were tried on, iPhone photos were taken, drinks were drunk. There were also freshly-baked biscuits, which a European gentleman at the party referred to as “delicious bread patties”. Perfect.
Care to shop the collaboration? Let’s go.
Emily Weiss and Eva Chen in the foreground. In the background, smoldering eye contact.
Nick Axelrod and the incomparable Stella Bugbee, who is wearing culottes if you can’t tell.
HELL-o!
Hi Eniko! Hi Geordan!
Triple cuties
Love a good tablescape
It’s Sophia. Ms. Amoruso if you’re nasty.
The shiniest hair this side of the Mississippi
The crew! Nick, our dear co-founder and co-CEO Neil Blumenthal, Emily, and our equally-dear co-founder and co-CEO Dave Gilboa. L’chaim, guys.
Photos by Hannah Thomson
TO BUY · 07/10/2014
The perfect pair of aviators is like the perfect leather jacket, the perfect pair of jeans, the perfect scent: a staple for the ages. (Unisex, too.)
The perfect pair of aviators is like the perfect leather jacket, the perfect pair of jeans, the perfect scent: a staple for the ages. (Unisex, too.)
That’s one reason we paired up with Into The Gloss to introduce two new frames: one pair of sunglasses and one optical, each constructed from premium Japanese titanium in Jet Silver or Polished Gold.
If you’re not familiar, allow us to introduce you to your new favorite beauty destination. Into The Gloss takes everything you know about beauty, flips it, and reverses it. And although beauty and eyewear don’t normally fall into the same bucket…well, why shouldn’t they? The seed of our collaboration came from the notion that we could combine Into The Gloss’s approach to beauty with Warby Parker’s approach to glasses, and maybe wind up with a beautiful baby…
A year’s worth of collective brainstorming went into the design of the two collaboration pairs—because building the ideal aviator, it turns out, is an exercise in Goldilocks logic: they can’t be too big, they can’t be too small, they can’t be too wide and they can’t be too narrow. The teardrop silhouette can’t be too droopy. Every measurement must be just right.
The results are as wearable as they are distinctive.
TO READ · 06/25/2014
When the very first customer bought the very first pair of Warby Parker glasses, that person started a chain that continues to this moment.
When the very first customer bought the very first pair of Warby Parker glasses, that person started a chain that continues to this moment. For each pair of glasses sold, Warby Parker distributes a pair to someone in need—and this month, we hit a milestone of one million pairs that our customers have put in the hands of people all over the globe.
Want to know how it all works? Right this way.
TO MEET · 05/16/2014
Sometimes a book comes along that’s so good, you don’t even know how to endorse it. All you can do is read it with frantic absorption, finish it in 48 hours, and run to place it in the hands of your dearest friend without comment. When Adelle Waldman’s The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. came out last year, it instantly ascended into this category for us.
Sometimes a book comes along that’s so good, you don’t even know how to endorse it. All you can do is read it with frantic absorption, finish it in 48 hours, and run to place it in the hands of your dearest friend without comment. When Adelle Waldman’s The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. came out last year, it instantly ascended into this category for us.
Fast forward a year and the book is out in paperback, which makes it an ideal summer companion if you haven’t already read it. The book is about a young writer and his Brooklyn ecosystem of friends, enemies, and romantic prospects. Lena Dunham called it “too real”, The Economist called it “incisive and very funny”, The New Republic called it “powerfully intelligent” and we call it all of those things, plus fun.
To celebrate the paperback release, we hosted a party with Adelle at our Greene Street store. All the ingredients of a traditional book party were present: bottles of Brooklyn Lager, both colors of wine (we fancy), toasts, copies of the book, and a menagerie of tote bags. (SO MANY TOTE BAGS!)
There were also rainbow confections shaped to resemble the silhouettes on Adelle’s book, made by Flour Shop. If you’ve ever read a book so good that you wanted to eat it, you’ll get an idea of how much pleasure we took in consuming these mimetic morsels.
Oh! And guess what? Adelle has a brand-new story available for $2.99, which is less than the cost of a damn ice cream cone. Whatta steal.
Happy summer, and big thanks to everyone who came to celebrate The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.
(Shoutout to Katie Roiphe, far right, whose book In Praise of Messy Lives is mind-bendingly excellent.)
Photos by Christina Timoldi
