In this digital age of online culture, influencer collaborations are common among big and small brands.
In a piece exploring how influencers and brands collaborate, experts point to collaborations as a way to achieve another layer of expression for brands, allowing the public to see the brand through someone else’s lenses.
Experts point to the Louis Vuitton collaboration with musician Pharrell Williams, who replaced designer Virgil Abloh as LV’s creative director. Influencer-brand partnerships are a great way to combine two seemingly different worlds, as was the case with model-actress Pamela Anderson’s collection with Frankies Bikinis.
For consumers in the LGBTQ community, influencer-brand collaborations are a great way to blend interests and explore new niches. Brands that work with queer influencers, artists, or content creators are also more likely to expand their target audience to reach LGBTQ consumers who may otherwise be unfamiliar with the brand.
In this article, we’ll look at eyewear retailer Sunglass Hut’s collaboration with GAY TIMES for their Pride collection. More importantly, we’ll look at how this partnership helped celebrate queerness and the influencers’ individual expression.
Sunglass Hut
Originating as a kiosk in a Miami mall in 1971, Sunglass Hut quickly became the ultimate sunglasses destination, offering a wide range of high-quality fashion and sports performance brands to complete anyone’s look. Aside from its brick-and-mortar stores, people can also buy from the Sunglass Hut website. Currently, the site is promoting its Shades of Love collection to celebrate Valentine’s day. The collection boasts a variety of designer and luxury shades in pink lens tints and colorways for the occasion. If you like Prada sunglasses, there is a translucent soft beige pair of PR A17S. Other pairs in the collection include a sleek, Aviator-shaped Scuderia Ferrari in a dark pink lens tint, as well as a chunky-framed Versace VE4474U in bright, pastel pink.
For a more playful approach, Sunglass Hut also currently has a Horoscope collection, where you can find a variety of branded shades to match the personality traits associated with your zodiac sign. These are divided into fire, air, earth, and water signs, with colorways that match each defining trait, like reds for the fire signs and blues for the water signs.
Aside from the occasional celebratory collaborations, Sunglass Hut also offers specially curated collections, such as The Exceptionals section, which looks at exceptional shades from designer brands like Jimmy Choo, Versace, and Brunello Cucinelli.
Sunglass Hut’s Every Shade of Me
For the retailer’s 2024 Pride collection titled Every Shade of Me, Sunglass Hut worked with LGBTQ creatives Emilio Jimenez, Shanée Benjamin, and Shiraz Kook. The collection included iconic Prada sunglasses like the PR 17WS in a fun translucent jade green, as well as translucent frame colorways for beloved Ray-Ban silhouettes like the Corrigan and Kiliane.
GAY TIMES’ writeup to explain the partnership draws insights from the three creatives and talks about how fashion is key to self-expression. Emilio Jimenez, for example, spoke about wearing shades to boost his self-confidence while showing off his best looks, while Brooklyn illustrator and art director Shanée Benjamin shared how statement glasses help add personality to your look.
As explained above, Sunglass Hut offers a range of curated collections to celebrate different occasions, including Pride. Previously, the eyewear retailer stepped into the Metaverse through an innovative Ready Player Me partnership, offering digital sunglasses to customers who visit their physical stores. Scanning a QR code in certain Sunglass Hut locations allowed customers to claim virtual Ray-Bans and Oakleys for their Ready Player Me avatars.
With so many different curations and collections from the eyewear retailer, it’ll be interesting to see what Sunglass Hut has in mind for Pride 2025. Whatever it’ll be, customers are sure to get a line of fun, colorful shades as statement pieces to celebrate the LGBTQ community.
If you liked this post, you can check out our previous piece on fashion designer Tyler Neasloney and his role in art, activism, fashion, and Broadway.
