INTERVIEW BLAKE KUWAHARA
BLAKE KUWAHARA
BOLD OPTICAL FAIR | SPRING 2022 |
TEKST: MAARTEN WEIDEMA
48
Hi Blake, we have known each other for years and I consider you a personal friend, but could you introduce yourself a little to readers who may not yet know you? Thank you. Likewise. I grew up in a creative family - my mother and grandmother were both artists, but I followed a more academic path and received my first degree in psychobiology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and my doctorate in optometry from the University of California, Berkeley (CAL). While in college, I was still able to nurture my creative side by interning with an interior designer and working as a creative director for a CAL and UCLA publication. After working in private practice for 3 years, I realized that I no longer wanted to spend 8 hours a day in a dark room seeing patients and needed a more creative outlet. It just so happened that an LA-based eyewear company, Wilshire Designs/Liz Claiborne Optics, was looking for a creative director. Although I had a passion for eyewear, I had no hands-on experience designing eyewear. The owner of the company, Dick Haft, thought I had the aesthetic basics and that he could teach me the technical aspects of design. I took a risk by leaving my practice to start a whole new career, and they took a big risk with me! Dick also gave me the opportunity to start my own brand, KATA Eyewear. I really owe my entry into the design side of our industry to him. You were born and raised in Los Angeles, a city "notorious" for its amazing eyewear designers. Did you connect with them from the beginning? I knew Alex Vance of BADA because we shared the same European agent, and Gai Gherardi and Barbara McReynolds of LA Eyeworks were among our first accounts. I'm getting a day older myself, but this goes all the way back to 1992! You studied optometry, so your connection to the optical industry is obvious, but for some reason you liked being at the front of the store more than working in the lab in the back. Was that because of the glasses, the people or both? I loved working with my patients, but the constraints of sitting in a dark exam room most of the day and a tight patient schedule were not for me. Of course, I was more attracted to the fashion/sales side of our practice than the clinical side.
