Mykita
Today, by absolute random chance, I stumbled into an eyewear shop on Langstrasse in Zurich. I was 'ohhhing' and 'awwwing' at all the glasses, pointing and saying to my husband, 'you don't understand, these glasses are amaaazing' when a man approached me and asked if I wanted to try on anything. 'Oh no no, I'm just looking' I replied. 'Well, if you change your mind feel free to try on anything you like - there's a mirror just there' (he pointed to the far side of the wall). Before he could walk away I just had to ask, 'What brands are these sunglasses?' His response included a few different names, some that I recognized* most others I didn't (one was Mykita). I tried on a pair and loved them but hadn't gone in with any intention of buying a pair of sunglasses*...
Then I spotted a very different selection sitting behind the counter and walked over to have a little look. So bewildered by these glasses, and a bit gobsmacked by how I had never come across these before, I asked him, 'Who are those made by?' His reply was 'Mykita.' As he took a pair down and held them in his hand he said, 'these are made from metal* look what they can do' and pulled the arms back making the glasses entirely flat. He passed them to me, and I walked to the mirror on the other side of the shop and was totally blown away. They looked so cool. When I handed them back to him I rambled something about how amazing I thought they were, asked again who they were made by, and said I had never heard of that brand.
Just as I was about to leave I asked if he had a card for the shop. 'Of course', he replied and passed me a small white business card. As I thanked him and headed for the door I looked down to see that the name of the shop was 'Mykita'. Realizing immediately that my incessant questions about who designed the glasses must have sounded quite silly. I was in a Mykita shop asking who the glasses were made by, clearly the answer was pretty self evident. As I drifted away down the street I looked back and saw that in strong capital letters the word 'MYKITA' was emblazoned above the entrance to the shop.
I couldn't help thinking about these sunglasses for the rest of the day and when I got home I immediately pulled out the card and found the company online. Completely overwhelmed by the absolute magnitude of the brand, I got wrapped up in the many facets of the website: hand made glasses from Berlin, collaborations with incredible photographers and designers, a 'laboratory' where all the magic happens, and a careful selection of the most beautiful sunglasses. I'm so excited by this brand. They've only got a handful of shops, some being in Paris, Tokyo and Berlin, so there's a good chance most of you wont be able to pop down to see the glasses in real life (sorry London).
This shop is, without a doubt, my favourite discovery since being in Zurich and hopefully (if I'm lucky*) you'll spot a pair of these frames on my face in the near future.
*Paul & Joe, for example. The pair I tried on by them was amazing and I've been trying to find them online but can't. However, in my online hunt I did come across this. Totally chuffed because I love Paul & Joe and this was such a treat to find while insomniac posting at 4am on Sunday morning (the story of my current wave of insomnia - which I have never experienced before - is a whole other story, which I will leave out).
*I only recently got these ones after all, which are still seriously glued hard to my face.
*okay, so he didn't say 'metal' but some sort of specific metal... but I can't remember what it was.
*my birthday is in April, after all, so here's to keeping fingers crossed
Photos from the MYKITA website.
