Now this is pretty special. Jacques Marie Mage have worked with legendary singer, poet, photographer, author and bonafide eyewear icon Patti Smith on a limited range of shades celebrating the 50th birthday of her ultra-classic 1975 album, Horses.
While the frames take inspiration from Smith and her penchant for chunky wayfarers, their influences go a bit further back, subtly also paying homage to two figures who have long inspired Smith herself.
The frames use the JMM Dealan shape—tipping a hat to Smith’s love of Bob Dylan and the black frames Smith wore in the mid-70s to emulate her hero—while the colourways are nods to the proto-surrealist poet Arthur Rimbaud.
Anyone who’s read Smith’s autobiography Just Kids will know that the transgressive French poet was a huge influence on Smith’s life and work—in fact her fandom stretches so far that a few years back she bought the ultimate piece of Rimbaud memorabilia… his childhood home in the Ardennes.
But back to the shades… a true collaborative project, they feature Smith’s signature, foil-stamped in silver, on the inner temple, along with exposed custom wirecores engraved with lyrics taken from the nine-minute art-rock epic, ‘Land’.
50 years on from the release of Horses, these are a pretty fitting Golden Jubilee present to one of the most singular albums of the ‘70s.
Discover the Jacques Marie Mage Patti Smith collection now, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay in the loop on all our Jacques Marie Mage arrivals.
