It can feel a little bleak around this time of year with the days getting shorter and people slowly realising that that blast of sunshine we had back in May was pretty much most of it as far as summer 2020 was concerned. But it’s important that we all take a little time to remember that there are plenty of good things coming our way around this time of year. There’s that pleasant smokey smell lingering in the air at all times, for instance. And hey, what about the fact our TVs are again being blessed by that ultimate televisual pick-me-up, the Great British Bake Off?
Our favourite part of the seasonal slide down into Autumn though - and you’d never have guessed this - is the Autumn/Winter eyewear collection drops, a perennial autumnal joy-bringer if ever there was one. Who needs long evening strolls and t-shirt-worthy temperatures when your favourite brands are pumping out some cockle-warming new glasses and sunglasses?
The first collection for 2020’s Autumn/Winter - or Fall/Holiday as our friends across the Atlantic wrongly refer to it - is Garrett Leight. It’s a stripped-back and refined collection this time around that’s a continuation of the celebrations of Garrett Leight’s 10th anniversary - remember we interviewed him about that earlier this year. That’s meant that, rather than being full with new frame styles, it’s focused on a selection of real nice new colours of some of his most timeless and well-established frames: the Kinney, the Hampton, and the Calabar.
We love the collection, and we love the fact that Garrett’s shaking things up a bit on the model sides of things too, opting to celebrate the diverse talents and personalities of the Garrett Leight staff who feature throughout the lookbook. Take a look below and have a sneaky shop of the collection at the bottom of this very page right after, why don’t you?
The Garrett Leight Calabar
First pick of the bunch is the re-stock of Calabar. This a hefty, masculine frame that has graced the beautifully chiselled faces of modern-day Adonises including Brad Pitt and the actual Idris Elba. No surprise, then, that it sold out super-duper-quick the last time we stocked it. Now available in three colourways - Black Laminate Crystal with Semi-flat Blue Smoke Lens, Champagne with a Semi-flat Pure Green lens, and LLG with Semi-Flat Pure G15 Lens - you will probably have to move quite fast to scoop one of these bad boys. Yup.
The Garrett Leight Hampton
The Hampton is by now, surely, a certified design classic. It was one of the frames that Garrett Leight originally launched with over ten years ago and it’s still going really quite strong. It’s not over the top or breaking any kind of mould, it’s just a modernised take on the classic P3 that works really well. Garrett Leight’s head of design said it was kinda like their Levis 501s or their Converse Hi-tops, and we think she was right.
As part of this latest drop, the Garrett Leight gods have blessed us with a whole host of new colourways for the Hampton. In optical, we’ve got the punchy cherry-toned Baralo as well as the modern tortoiseshell, Matte Kodiak Tortoise. For the Hampton sunglasses, there’s Black Glass with Semi-Flat Pure G15 lenses and a tasty matte frame, Matte Saddle Tortoise with some Semi-Flat Blue Smoke lenses.
The Garrett Leight Kinney
For fans of now-classic Garrett Leight frames like the Hampton, there are also new colours for the Kinney, another one of those four Garrett Leight OGs. Chestnut and Olio are the new modern 'n' muted hues we have for the Kinney optical frames and the Chestnut’s back with Semi-Flat Pure Green lenses as a sunglasses accompanying the silvery LLG with Flat G15.
