Brands Look to Art, Architecture and Color Therapy for Inspiration
Lars von Bennigsen has no doubt that life can be lived through rose-colored glasses — and purple, pink and orange ones, too.
Founder of the eyewear wellness brand Loving Victorious Beings, von Bennigsen is a great believer in color therapy. His brand offers lenses meant to transform the world into a more beautiful place, but also to relax the mind; combat “unpleasant” lighting; reduce visual fatigue, and protect from UVA and UVB rays.
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There is more: pink lenses have the added advantage of helping to reduce stress, while orange ones can enhance focus and concentration, he says, adding that the color purple can increase joy and creativity. The brand describes its Baja Orange glasses as “the ultimate buffer of unpleasant vibrations.”
In a Zoom interview from sunny Mexico, von Bennigsen said those lenses can transform a gray, rainy day, and enhance the wearer’s mood. “All of a sudden, the orange makes it look like beautiful, tropical rain,” he said.
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While Loving Victorious Beings is still young — von Bennigsen launched the premium eyewear brand in 2018 — he’s been making color therapy glasses for himself and friends since 2000, after he walked into a shop and tried on a purple pair, “which did something to my state of mind.”
Since then, von Bennigsen, who cofounded designer Alice Temperley‘s brand but no longer works in fashion, has become increasingly interested in the mechanics of the human body, the brain “and in the emerging fields of natural wellness management and vibrational healing.”
When he started to research more, “and to experiment at larger scale, I found that apart from making people happier and more relaxed, the colors had quite a wide array of benefits on people’s state of being.”
The glasses, which sell online, at wellness retreats, and resorts in places including Ibiza, Mykonos and Mexico, are part of a wider mission “to create a do-good enterprise” and make “next-level, natural wellness products and tools based on vibrational healing research and technology.”
He said the brand has been collaborating, and sharing information, with an array of experts including Ph.D.s who understand light and vibration mechanics, as well as specialist lens makers and labs.
The glasses are made in Italy and cost 200 euros each. Customers range from 18 to 80, and kids, in particular, love the glasses. He plans to widen distribution later this year and partner with retailers. It sells at the boutique at Six Senses Ibiza curated by two London fashion editors, Daniela Agnelli and Tiffanie Darke.
Von Bennigsen said developing the colors is “quite a long endeavor as it is very hard to get the light frequency of the lenses exactly perfect. It is a multistage, multi-input process.”
He and his team are working on three new colors, one of them aimed at helping increase concentration. They are also launching blue light-blocking reading glasses. There are also plans to add two to three more styles this year as well as other products.
The Netherlands-based influencer Linda Tol isn’t focusing on color, or wellness, as much as shape, making limited-edition glasses inspired by art, architecture, sculpture and interiors.
Tol and the retailer Marieke Meulendijks founded Tol Eyewear, a small collection of distinctive, oversize frames that are handmade in Italy using Mazzucchelli Acetate and Carl Zeiss Vision lenses.
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In an interview Tol said glasses need to make a statement. “They are the finishing touch of a look,” and reflect the way she likes to dress. “I love them big and oversize, like my blazers. They also hide my tired eyes,” said Tol, who recently had a baby. “Sometimes I put on a big pair and tie my hair back, and then I’m done.”
She produces in small quantities, and sells through the website but also at stores including Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Browns and small boutiques. The glasses are unisex, are meant to fit a variety of face sizes and shapes, and range in price from 230 euros to 260 euros.
She does one big collection per year, and is loathe to overproduce. She said that if certain styles run out her customers, many of whom are her social media followers, are willing to wait until they’re restocked.
Her most popular style is the Trapezium, a geometric cat eye that comes in a variety of sizes. The Alpine, with its softly rounded edges looks as if it was molded by hand from clay while the Upside Down has frames that look like they’ve been chiseled by a pre-historic artist.
While the focus has traditionally been on black frames, Tol has been branching into color and in May will introduce light yellow, sage and pearl into her arty mix.
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