Function, Form + Fashion: All About South Korean Eyewear Brand Gentle Monster
Here's why this brand is making so much noise.
(SPOT.ph) If you have your eye on South Korean and local celebrities, there’s no way you haven’t encountered eyewear brand Gentle Monster. Sitting pretty on the faces of countless K-Drama stars and K-Pop idols, and even those of Filipino and Western celebrities, Gentle Monster has been making noise, and even more so by quietly setting up shop in the Philippines.
Also read: SPOTTED: Korean Eyewear Brand Gentle Monster Is Opening in Manila
What is Gentle Monster?
Founded in 2011 by Hankook Kim, Gentle Monster is a South Korean eyewear brand that meshes wearability with a forward-looking design sensibility. A quick look at their catalog promises familiar and classic silhouettes next to pieces with an unexpected modern edge. Its genesis is rooted in a dedication to supply South Korean patrons with bigger pieces that would complement their eyes and give the illusion of a smaller face.
In 2012, entrepreneur Jae W Oh invested about U.S. $ 100,000 and Gentle Monster began producing frames in Daegu, then a manufacturing hub for Italian eyewear conglomerate Luxottica.
Apart from the innovation nurtured over the years, the brand is committed to quality construction. The brand’s glasses are made in both homeland South Korea and China, with a discerning eye to maintain consistent quality across all products.
Gentle Monster as a brand wears many hats: It is functional with its frames for reading and prescription, a pioneer in form with its avant-garde pieces, making it fashionable with its stylish investment pieces and unique conversation starters. Different people with different tastes could walk in, and they're bound to find a pair of glasses beckoning them to the counter.
Gentle Monster on the rise
The brand saw a rise in popularity due its ubiquitous presence in media, most notably on both local celebrities like on actress Jun Ji-Hyun in the 2013 Korean drama My Love From The Star—a K-Drama staple and starting point for many Filipino fans. In 2016, the brand would go on to open its first U.S. store in Grand Street in SoHo, New York City.
For those beyond the realm of Korean entertainment, the first foray into Gentle Monster was likely the collaboration with multi-hyphenate Tilda Swinton. Serving as designer, Swinton helmed the February 2017 collaboration with her creative vision and debuted a collection that paid homage to the best of what eyewear had long offered, and yet embraced contemporary aesthetics. The three Gentle Monster pieces stood its own ground against the actress’ unique and distinct features, and its release heralded the dynamic future to come.
A year after opening its first U.S. store, Gentle Monster would open its second store in downtown Los Angeles in October 2017. Just a month prior, French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH invested $60 million for a stake in Gentle Monster.
Years later, the brand would cement its status as a top eyewear brand when its buggy black sunglasses became a defining accessory for actress Son Ye-Jin’s character Yoon Se-Ri in the 2019 drama Crash Landing On You—Hallyu’s latest and greatest success in recent years.
And still for some, the ultimate seal of approval for fans came in the form of Blackpink member Jennie’s affinity for the brand’s glasses. Gentle Monster has since become a go-to for sunglasses fiends and newbies alike, along with a steady roster of celebrities pulling a pair out to read or to shield their eyes from the sun.
But perhaps bigger than Gentle Monster’s presence perched atop the nose bridges of the hottest celebrities is its presence in the digital and the physical world. Online, the brand’s identity is all forms of peculiar and absurd, unapologetic in its experimentation as it blends the past and the future in a diverse virtual lookbook. Every square on their Instagram grid is a bold story on its own, and together, they are puzzle pieces that paint a picture better witnessed in person.
Walking into a Gentle Monster store is an experience, to say the least. The products are displayed akin to museum pieces, with a centerstage for interactive installations heavy on production design to create and welcome patrons into an immersive world that toys with reality. Think breathing underwater, disco-retro adventures in space, and the possibility of gigantic humans.
Aiding in this kitschy aesthetic is the brand's openness to collaborating not just with the hottest stars and brands across the globe, but also with industries far-removed from eyewear to give rise to collections so left-field and unexpected, you can't help but look twice. Top of mind would be the recent Maison Margiela collection, and the other side of the coin: the Overwatch collection. Yes. The first person shooter game Overwatch.
Gentle Monster in the Philippines
Filipinos on trips to South Korea would often add Gentle Monster glasses to their to-buy lists. The brand’s pieces are covetable as is, but especially so as the Philippines has no physical store. That is, until as of late.
As of writing, a Gentle Monster storefront waits in silence and bides its time at One Bonifacio High Street in BGC. Slated to open on October 16, it already marks all the exciting ways Filipinos will incorporate the eyewear into their daily wardrobe in a play that blends function, form, and fashion.