John Galliano in the Sun

John Galliano launches his own range of sunglasses, produced by Marcolin to fuse high fashion and function. Inspired by Galliano Icons, the styles mix Galliano’s unique spirit of romance and innovation. Wanting every detail to add the Galliano spirit to his frames, the romantic palette of smoky kohl to soft violets and powdered rose captures the mystique and exotic elegance that exudes from Galliano’s heroines.

For women, Galliano goes back to his Spanish heritage and takes inspiration from the Flamenco to create ‘Les Biches’, a sultry oversized dark wrap shade, inspired by the Spanish Peinetas, the intricate honeycomb fan that crowns the hair of Flamenco dancers. Whilst for men the inspiration comes from Galliano’s favourite rebels and heroes; the ‘Beau Regard’ combines house motifs with cinematic style in a chunky plastic upper set against a fine metal lower frame, with contrast colour edging.

On designing the collection, John Galliano says: "Sunglasses are the ultimate accessory as well as the ultimate alibi. They are the status symbol that conceals the private gaze, and exposes only the glossy image you want to project. I wanted to create new glamour, and new shades, for my muses to play their part in... I wanted to blend old school glamour with high-tech romance so we looked at innovations in plastics and pushed new lens techniques to tell our story. I wanted a Galliano decadence and depth of character in the personality of each of these glasses."

The Icon Collection will be available exclusively at the John Galliano boutique in Paris and selected shops worldwide from October 2009.