During the pandemic, people began to depend even more upon the digital realm as a reliable platform for keeping up with social circles, maintaining meaningful connections, as well as being a useful channel for sharing their solitary artworks and expanding their modes of creativity and inspiration.
Gentle Monster is rethinking eyewear in a similar way. In collaboration with different artists within the circle of creative technology, the South Korean-based label does not only question the conventions of eyewear, but also makes their work accessible and playful on Instagram. Their fresh set of face-augmenting filters is based on the real life works of artists such as Daisy Collingridge, a textile artist creating fleshy bodysuits, or James Merry, known for his face pieces for Björk. Gentle Monsters transferred their work into the virtual, making it available to slip on pieces of artwork and share with others. Borrowed from the world of robots, objects, and even the animal kingdom, the inspirations surrounding the collaborating artists could not be more diverse. How fun to have a set of extraordinary filters to try, especially since it is otherwise so easy to see the world through a grey filter of bad news and restrictions.
Like the humans wearing them, Gentle Monster’s products come in all shapes. The styles of their sunglasses range from the avant-garde and futuristic, to the timeless and classic, to bizarre and goofy designs. As the filters, they showcase the face as well as showcasing the wearer’s embodiments. Everyone on our team found a pair of sunglasses as well as a filter that matched their style and preferences, adding a bit of fantasy and fun to our everyday tasks. Below we play with our favorite filters and our favorite pieces from the Gentle Monster sunglasses line. Follow them to play with your own!
