Interview: Blake Kuwahara

BLAKE KUWAHARAINTERVIEW

BLAKE KUWAHARA

TEKST:

MAARTEN WEIDEMA 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.

Why did you decide to start designing eyewear yourself? When I found out I wanted to pursue a different career path, I explored everything from interior design to window design. It was pure luck that I came across the ad from Wilshire Designs that made me start designing eyewear.

Does your background as an optometrist still influence your design work? Absolutely. I am very pragmatic when designing, because at the end of the day, frames contain prescription lenses and need to fit properly. I want to make sure my eyewear is ergonomically correct, has the right fit values and optical centering, and is well designed and balanced. This is just as important to me as the aesthetic side. Eyewear can't just look good, it has to fit well.

You've done great work with Kata and several licensed brands like John Varvatos and Carolina Herrera. Do you still design for other brands or are you just focused on Blake Kuwahara now. In addition to Blake Kuwahara Eyewear, I have a separate design firm, Focus Group West. We are a design collective and have been together for 12 years. Besides me, there are two other eyewear designers, two graphic designers, two architects, two public relations agents and two project managers. We do everything from creating brands (the design concept, product design, marketing, etc.) to discreet projects such as logos, displays and retail spaces. As Blake Kuwahara Eyewear grows, we become more selective in taking on new external projects, but we continue to design for others.

I see a strong Japanese influence in your eyewear designs. Can you tell me how Japanese culture influences your work? I am 4th generation Japanese-American. My great-grandparents emigrated from Japan to the US at the turn of the last century. My mother's parents were both born in the US. Although I grew up in Los Angeles, I think there is still a strong Japanese sensibility in my aesthetic. I appreciate things that have a "soul," that are handmade, and that are well put together. Japanese also tend to be very precise and understated. I think that frugality in design also influences my work.

Your "frame-in-a-frame" design is exceptional. What inspired you to make that and how difficult is it to get such an intricate construction produced? Many of my friends are in the creative field: architects, photographers, designers of all kinds. We all have a creative side to what we do professionally, but we also have a business side. We were looking for glasses that fit both sides. One day I was shopping and saw an antique Chinese wooden stool encased in a clear block of plastic. It was a "stool-in-a-stool." I thought this was brilliant. Taking something familiar and making it fresh and new by changing the outside. I thought this was a perfect way to express my concept.

The manufacturing process was extremely difficult to master for a number of reasons. The front piece and tempels were made from two separate components: The inner form and the outer form. We have to make sure that there are no air bubbles and no separation between the two forms. Also, acetate with different colors and textures has different shrinkage rates, so we need to calculate that when combining two different materials. Certain colors may also bleed when combined. The curing time to ensure stability is already more than two months. So there are a lot of factors just in making this collection!

What material do you prefer to work with? Each material has different advantages and disadvantages. At KATA, I worked mainly with metal and injection molding. When I launched Blake Kuwahara Eyewear, I wanted to explore how I could bring something different with handmade acetate.

How do your eyewear designs stand out from other brands? I think the true mark of a brand is that you can identify it without a logo. I like to think that we have created a unique aesthetic that is recognizable at first glance and that you can recognize even blindfolded by touching and feeling our frames. My overall aesthetic is distinctive but understated, artful yet wearable.

What is your creative process? Whenever I see something that piques my interest, I take a picture of it and put it in a folder on my phone. This could be something from a magazine, or something I come across while traveling or at a flea market. When it's time to put together a collection, I flip through my folders and start combining ideas. From there, the rough sketches are turned into design drawings and then technical CAD drawings before being turned into prototypes. What inspires you while designing. Is it technology, architecture, materials or more personally driven, like a face shape or the personality of the potential wearer? It's a combination of all those things. There are practical considerations like size and shape to make sure the collection is well-rounded. There is also an intuitive component that comes into play, as I am designing more than a year before launch. So it's not about what someone wants now, but what they will want a year from now. And there's the personal component of what me and my friends want to wear!

After more than three decades of designing, do you recognize a particular trend in your own work? Or are you constantly reinventing yourself? People have said that they see my "fingerprints" on my work, regardless of the brand or when it was designed. I take that as a compliment. I like to think that there is an overarching aesthetic and through-line in what I design. That said, I also like to explore new ideas and concepts that may have nothing to do with what I have done before. Blake Kuwahara Eyewear's Grey Label collection is a good example. It has a very different concept and construction, yet there is still design continuity with my core collection.

After all your adventures with so many brands and your own brand name, do you see any other projects in the future? There are always things I think about in terms of new concepts and brand extensions. But I have to think about the time and energy it takes to achieve output for new initiatives instead of enjoying other things in life. It's about prioritizing what's important at this stage of my life and balancing that with other pursuits outside of business.

Everywhere I go, I always seem to run into you. Is travel an important part of your life? As I'm sure with you, travel was definitely a big part of my life before COVID! I think most people involved in the design side of our business would agree. I was in Asia every 4-6 weeks and in Europe every two months and traveling domestically in between. During the pandemic, that pretty much stopped.

What do I always hear about you and the flea markets? Is that your "Happy Place"? Wow, do you even know that! Yes, I love a good market! Wherever and whenever I traveled, I always found a flea market to go to on the weekends. I usually don't go with a particular thing in mind to find. I just enjoy wandering them. I am attracted to things that have "soul", patina and a story. Flea markets are definitely my weakness!

I read that you see Paris in a different way now after going there with your partner. I had the same thing when I was there with my fiancé, even though I visited about 20 Silmos. You're from LA yourself, but what other cities have a special place in your heart. It's always best to see a city through the eyes of someone who lives there. I've never been one to visit all the "touristy" spots and I prefer remote places. My first date with Patrick was

BLAKE KUWAHARA

getting on a bike and riding through the neighborhoods of Paris. It was a totally different experience. Tokyo is also very special to me because of its culture, food, architecture and vintage clothing stores. Interestingly, I used to hate Bangkok because I found it too chaotic, but I have embraced that now. I really miss the street food and antique markets there.

I saw some pictures of your house in Sausalito, it looked amazing! Did you do most of the interior design yourself? Can you tell me anything about that project? I split my time between LA (West Hollywood) and San Francisco (Sausalito.) My home in West Hollywood is mid-century modern and in a tall building above bustling Sunset Boulevard. My house in Sausalito is very different. It was built in 1930 and has a Mediterranean aesthetic. I was only the second owner and when I bought the property, it needed a lot of work. It has been a slow process, but a labor of love. The design intent was to keep the overall charm and aesthetic of the original house, but modernize it. The downstairs is a bit more industrial with cement floors and exposed beams. The house has a beautiful view of San Francisco Bay and is very quiet. It's where most of my flea market finds end up!

What do you do when you're not at work? Before the pandemic, traveling took up most of my free time. Now that I'm spending more time at home, I've started cooking and taking advantage of all the great hiking trails right outside my house. As much as I enjoy nesting, I can't wait to travel again!

Cooking is also my hobby, so I'll definitely be coming to Sausalito sometime to cook for you, thanks for your time Blake and see you in New York!

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INDUSTRIAL AND ELEGANT, BUILDING 43 WAS THE CENTRAL STEEL WAREHOUSE IN THE 19TH CENTURY. THE ORIGINAL STEEL STRUCTURE STILL CHARACTERIZES THE BUILDING.

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