Chloë Sevigny has always had her finger on the pulse. The original New York cool girl shapes trends, whether by reviving funky footwear or revamping the frilly frock. This time, Sevigny is applying her talents to the world of eyeglasses. She has collaborated with Warby Parker on a pair of frames named the Tate ($145), available as both eyeglasses and sunnies. The shape is Sevigny to the core: a soft oval evocative of a scholastic babe who likes binging on reality television after she hits The Strand.
The actor co-designed the initial pair of gold Tate frames back in 2018 alongside Lena Dunham, Gloria Steinem, and Humberto Leon, who created their own pairs for Warby Parker’s Pupils Project, a cause that provides eye care and glasses in New York public schools. Sevigny’s pairs, which were inspired by the likes of stylist Camille Bidault Washington, were one of the most popular and sold out. “I think the glasses were always so popular and always sold out so quickly,” she says. “and I love their whole initiative that every pair that is sold, another pair is distributed to someone in need.” This time, Sevigny has updated the frames by making them in silver.
To show just how versatile the frames are, Sevigny wore her own clothes for the campaign shot by her friend Brianna Capozzi. The outfits ranged from a Vivienne Westwood corset to a vintage Jean Paul Gaultier top, a Junya Watanabe skirt with tulle, and a pair of her signature chunky loafers. Sevigny designed the glasses in part because she needed something pared-back to go with her oft-photographed outré look. “So many of the styles of sunglasses these days are so heavily labeled, which I find really frustrating. I can find a frame that I love, but then every arm has huge labels on them,” she says. “I like that these frames are more understated. You don’t have any brand’s logo on the side. I think it makes it chicer.”
While Sevigny is now a well-established tastemaker, that hasn’t always been the case, at least according to the tabloids. Her mother found her a pair of vintage thick-rimmed white glasses from a Boy Scout tag sale in Darien, Connecticut. “I was obsessed, and I wore them all the time. I got so ridiculed by all of the US Weeklys and Star Magazines,” says Sevigny. “They were criticizing me, making fun of me, all the above to such an extent that my reps called me and were like, ‘It’s hard for us to see how people are dragging you through the mud over these sunglasses. Perhaps you should stop wearing those.’ It was so extreme” Even then, Sevigny was one step ahead. “Then, of course, they became all the rage.”
As for these silver frames? Sevigny recommends wearing them with something else silver to complement. “I have a nice pair of silver David Yurman hoops,” she says. Well, we’ll see you on the street looking chic, Chloë.
For more information please visit: www.vogue.com