Th e D’ Bl an c
PERSPECTIVE
Perspective. It’s singular. Uniquely yours. What you’re holding in your hands now, is ours. And point of view is more than just what we see but also how we see it. At D’Blanc, our contribution to the world of eyewear comes from a unique and inspired perspective; a vigorous disregard for convention contrasted with an ardent appreciation of the traditional methods and craftsmanship that go into making our frames. Welcome to the second installment of our seasonal publication Perspective, a visual journal that chronicles our community and culture— our adventures and inspirations, people we find interesting, and a look inside the process of the products we stand behind.
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4 ESCAPE TO EXIST Adventures in wonderland to encourage you to get out and find your own Shangri-la.
18 DIZ Cruisy hang sesh with the grooooovvvy Derrick Disney.
30 ROBBIE SIMON We took a day off with Robbie Simon to talk shop and see the interesting space surrounding this creative character.
PERSPECTIVE
A B I - ANNUAL JOURNAL BY D’BL ANC VOLUME 01 / ISSUE 02 2 016 PRINTED IN THE U.S. A .
CON T E N TS
26 D’BLANC FOR BEACH RIOT A fun collaboration with the girls at Beach Riot.
40 NOA DEANE Plain as black & white. Noa in full color.
52 NIKY NIKY Taking an abstract perspective on some of our new frames with our artist friend Niky Roehreke.
56 DAY OFF WITH BREA A field trip to the LA Zoo with Brea and Amber to feed the animals.
64 LE LENS HURTADO California photographer Kenny Hurtado shows us the contemporary side of surf photography.
74 HECHO EN ITALY PT. II Our product doesn’t make itself beautiful. Another photo essay exploring how the landscape compliments the hand-made construction of our frames.
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ESCAPE TO EXIST The journey. It calls to you. The mystery of the road and freedom of adventure. It’s intoxicating, invigorating. And this urge to explore lives in all of us. But you have to listen to that voice. Do what it says. Escape. Break free from the predictable patterns of everyday existence. Your sanity and your soul depend on it. Whether it’s a few minutes down the road or thousands of miles from home, nothing compares to a well-planned escape. Wander out beyond the boundaries of your comfort zone and reach for fresh and foreign feelings.
STYLES FEATURED Vast Minority, Tan Lines, Afternoon Delight, Soft Noise, Strange Fascination, ,High Road, Psychedelic Solution, Stay Tuned, Sonic Bloom
HAIR & MAKEUP Marygene Walker @ marygenemua
WARDROBE Hot As Hell @ we_are_ hah Beach Riot @beachriot Janessa Leone @ janessaleone
STYLING Amanda Gilbert @ amandasgilbert
VIDEO Charles Bergquist @ cbergquist Brian Williamson @ user0138
PHOTOGRAPHY Jean Pierrot @pierrot Steve Neiley @kneelskeez Keegan Fong @ blablablessyou
MODEL Becca Hiller @beccahiller
ESCAPISM FOR LIFE
This collection of images highlights the beauty of nature and the endless adventures that inspire our line of premium products.
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Champagne Coast
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STYLES FEATURED Champagne Coast
PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Neiley @kneelskeez Kenny Hurtado @ kennyhurtado Laser Wolf @laserwolf. photo
PURVEYOR Derrick Disney @gado_ gadooo
CARDIFF CRACK
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DOG
A photo hang sesh with our soul brudda Derrick.
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Derrick Disney Deep 6
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An exclusive collaboration between Beach Riot and D’Blanc.
STYLES FEATURED Beach Riot for D’Blanc Minor Panic, Guilty Pleasure, and The End
WARDROBE Beach Riot @beachriot
STYLING Amanda Gilbert @amandasgilbert
PHOTOGRAPHY Shintani @shintani
MODEL Nicole Hanriot @nhanriot
A BEACHY COLLAB
With a shared passion for the more refined side of beach life, Sunny G’s brings together two of Southern California’s most vibrant new brands for an inspired eyewear collection that blends D’Blanc’s sophisticated, Italian-made frames with Beach Riot’s fresh, flawless style. As a sunglass connoisseur, Beach Riot founder, Nicole Hanriot calls them Sunny G’s - the one accessory that takes you from the beach to the street. Inspired by her Summer 2016 collection, Nicole has created a unique color story for three of her favorite frames: Minor Panic, Guilty Pleasure, and The End..
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ROBBIE SIMON
STYLES FEATURED Minor Panic
PHOTOGRAPHER Kenny Hurtado @kennyhurtado
TALENT Robbie Simon @brojazz
SI MON
Artist, Designer, DJ, all around groove cat Robbie Simon was kind enough to open his doors and give us a glimpse into what he’s been working on and where he rests his ever so busy feet.
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Robbie Simon Los Angeles , California And what do you do? Graphic design, art and just about any other thing I can make a mess of. I will happily paint your car tires or design you a totem pole. Waiting patiently for someone to ask for my assistance on doing a Hockney type mural on the bottom of a pool. What have you been up to? Striving to take better care of my garden and attempting to cure my dog’s bad breath, also impatiently waiting for the NBA season to begin. OKC gonna ball. Work wise I’ve been doing a lot of book design and first attempts at developing Wallpaper. Getting my publishing empire, Feeling Physical, back on track. Got books of drawings from Tim Presley and Geoff McFetridge just about ready to go to the printers. Can you give us a little background on your art and how you got started? I think my gateway drug was a pirated copy of Photoshop I got in high school from my sister’s boyfriend who was a renowned master at swapping teachers’ faces onto porn. Great guy. I never had his ambition or dedication to a specific craft but any excuse I could find to use it, I would. It was a revelation to the kid whose drawings of a horse closely resembled a mailbox could still be artistic and produce decent work with this one tool. I don’t have one of those families, that exist in LA/NYC, that go to see the new Mapplethorpe exhibit at MOMA and finger paint interpretations of Guernica after dinner instead of watching TV. Which is ok! Graphic design just seemed like a safe balance of what I like to do and how I can get paid to do it. I find that graphic design is very much a harbor for highly creative pragmatists. It took me many years before I really accepted making art for art’s sake and not needing a client or purpose to validate my impulse to create. But damn, life’s been much more fun since I figured that out. How’s it working closely with Geoff McFetridge? Well, it’s really great. The state of my work and goals from when I started to where I am now are miles apart and I have his influence to thank. It was just exactly what I needed. I had been drifting through the creative world without any direction or idea where i wanted to go. Working at hilariously awful companies that were born to fail, just to get a paycheck. But Geoff has a work ethic and efficiency that I had never seen and do my best to keep up with. I mean, I sincerely wish for anyone developing a specific trade and skill the opportunity of working with someone who is a master of their craft. And the Allah-Las boys? Those guys are just my life partners. It’s a very rare and functional, symbiotic relationship that I think has been so fruitful it’s had ill effects of my dealing with other clients. I’ll work with other bands or companies and end up confused as to why it’s difficult and tedious? I have total creative freedom as well as a very well synced aesthetic tastes with them. As a bonus we know each other so well we can communicate freely and constructively and they trust me to deliver no matter if it’s a poster, a record, a video or live projections. Also, to their credit they value aesthetics and control over their image in a way I admire and see as rare these days. They work hard on their music and they work hard that it’s accurately portrayed through visual outlets. We’re not in the age of radio where the sound of the song is all that exists, the internet is rich in all forms of media but it’s first and foremost a visual place. They are clever enough to be vigilant in their efforts to explain their music in images and sound. I feel like any artwork of quality will come from a diverse and dense place of ideas, mediums and experiences. Can you tell us a bit about Reverberation Radio? Reverberation is a small music collective that releases a 30 minute mix each Wednesday. It’s made up of about 10 of us and has been going on for a few years now. It’s actually grown into something pretty special and well beyond my expectations when I joined in way back when, with a much greater reach and influence than I would have ever predicted. Last spring three of us were even flown to Barcelona to headline a small music festival playing records, It was just as easy and fun as that sounds. Seems like we’re in a time in where curators and culture collectors are revered and celebrated even greater than creators... which I do not think is healthy but I do think we (Reverb) do a good job with what we do. We don’t have any pretense that we’re doing something extraordinary or groundbreaking, just enjoying the fact it’s resonating with folks. What’s your favorite medium? House paint on anything and Construction paper on construction paper. General hobo art supplies.
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How would you describe your art and it’s influences? My goal is essentially creating attractive minimal abstract graphics. Shapes and strokes that are nothing important before and nothing much important after but together form an image that has it’s own merits to exist. It’s very aesthetically driven in composition and color and I optimistically hope that when it works, people who it appeals to, have a unique feeling and meaning from it. That’s the essence of what I love about abstract art, that it’s deeply democratic. When it works and resonates with someone it’s a completely unique feeling to them as an individual based on their feelings and experiences singularly. Now of course that’s true of anything across the board but when I’m creating an image devoid of identifiable shapes or subjects viewers can make absolutely what they want from it and I really like that. It may also often be the case that someone feels nothing from a piece or maybe they just think that looks cool. I’m very much okay with those scenarios as well, haha. I think Alexander Calder is my favorite dude these days. His work blew the minds of both children and philosophers, I can’t imagine a better measure of success. There’s a quote about him from an old ‘Art’s and Architecture’ article describing his work that really warms my heart and frames my philosophies on creating. It goes something like Calder’s work “is created in a carefree spirit of playfullness, of feeling his way along as he twists, tears, or bends a piece of wire or metal. Whatever he is creating -- grows out of his job of living.” Beyond him I really am loving Stuart Davis, Ken Price and Paul Jenkins right now but always with the neverending awe of Miró rand Matisse. Did you go to art school? I didn’t. Went to San Francisco State University and rambled through their design program. I didn’t learn much, but I had a pretty good time. Do you surf? I do surf. I love it more than most things. I often tell people the only downside to surfing is surfers. It’s perfect and heaven on earth in every other way. Music that gets your juices flowing? Favorite genre is Pop Music Made By Weirdos , Yoko, Ariel [Pink], Young Thug, Martin Newell, R. Stevie. Got any upcoming shows? Sorting out details for a show in LA this winter. It will be exclusively paintings and the first time I’ve ever showed paintings. Also, happens to be the first time I’ve ever made paintings...hoping it works out. Website(s): robbiesimon.com bobbymilkshake.tumblr.com
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Tan Lines
STYLES FEATURED Soft Noise, Champagne Coast
PHOTOGRAPHY Kenny Hurtado @kennyhurtado Corban Campbell @yewview Steve Neiley @kneelskeez Jeremiah Klein @miahklein Shane Fletcher @shanefletcher Nate Lawrence @lawrencephoto
PURVEYOR Noa Deane @ilovetables
NOA
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NOA
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NOZ
Aussie punter Noa came in town and we photographed him. Always good to catch up with this free flyin phenom. Welcome back Noz.
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Noa Deane Soft Noise
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NIKY NIKY
STYLES FEATURED Strange Fascination, Champagne Coast
TALENT Niky Roehreke @nikyroehreke
WATERCOLORZ
Colors in water, engaging, mixing, washing over each other. We shipped out some frames to our artist friend Niky Roehreke for her unique interpretation of the newest additions to our line.
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DAY OFF WITH BREA STYLES FEATURED Strange Fascination, Tan Lines, Stay Tuned, The End
STYLING Amanda Gilbert @amandasgilbert
PHOTOGRAPHY Amber Chavez @mountainspirit
PURVEYOR Brea Warner @breabrea
LA ZOO
The lush plant life and interesting animals at the Los Angeles Zoo felt like a great place to capture some captivating imagery. So we thought our photographer friend Amber Chavez could put an interesting look to a day off with our babe of a friend and muse, Brea Warner.
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The
Dark Matter Collection
Behind the polished exterior lurks something wild. We’re talking about Dark Matter, a new color collection that fuses gloss black Mazzucchelli™ acetate on the outside of the frame with contrasting leopard-pattern acetate on the inside. This is true stealth styling; far beyond basic black and fearlessly refined.
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LE LENS. HURTADO PHOTOGRAPHY Kenny Hurtado @kennyhurtado
PURVEYOR Corey Colapinto @kookapinto
SKY MASTER
Kenny’s a funny dude. His photographs are so in sync with his personality- a bit askew- but real good. Enjoy the following selection of his contemporary view on the wave riding culture.
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A true celebration of the craftsmanship shared between board building and sunglass design. We commissioned Vissla’s own Creator and Innovator Donald Brink to build a 1 of a kind Deep 6 Channel, jet-black Surfboard with Hand Foiled Mazzucchelli ™ Acetate Fins. Inspired by Vissla’s 7 Seas Collection, the sunglass frames were built with a Matte Black Exterior and 7 gloss stripes on each temple. As a compliment to the black materials of the front of the frames, we left a reveal of the natural beauty of the rich colors in the leopard acetate down the side and top profiles Available in our 2 of our best selling frames the Deep 6 and Evil Twin.
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HPEACRHTO EI N I ITALY The spirit of Italy is a source of endless inspiration for the products we create. And it goes beyond the country’s rich heritage in art, culture, & fashion. It is the juxtaposition of old and new; Roman ruins and fresh graffiti; a Ferrari on the cobblestone street. It is innovation built on tradition and style with substance. It is a wholehearted lust for life balanced by a pervasive and casual cool.
PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Neiley @kneelskeez
V I VA I TA L I A
We travelled to Italy to bring to light what “Made in Italy” means for D’Blanc and to document the unique elements that define the culture of Italian craftsmanship. We toured the island gardens on the shores of Lago Maggiore and explored the global fashion hub of Milan. Navigating the narrow streets of Asolo, we were struck by the beauty of ancient architecture against a backdrop of verdant green. Our journey through the lush countryside and vibrant cities delivered us to a quaint little village, where our premium eyewear is handmade by skilled craftsmen. In these small, family-run factories where new technology merges with traditional techniques passed from one generation from the next, the standards are higher, quality is unquestionable, and the final product truly speaks for itself.
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Italy is said to have more masterpieces per square mile than any other country in the world.
Our random facts about Italy. The name Italy comes from the word Italia, meaning “calf land,� perhaps because the bull was a symbol of the Southern Italian tribes.
Italy is approximately 116,400 square miles (including Sicily and Sardinia), which is slightly larger than Arizona.
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No other country in Europe has as many volcanoes as Italy. This is because the Italian peninsula stands on a fault line. Three major volcanoes (Etna, Stromboli, and Vesuvius) have erupted in the last hundred years.
The pre-dinner passeggiata (evening stroll) is one of Italy’s most enduring leisure activities where Italians stroll about the streets to see and be seen.
Venice, Italy, is one of the world’s most beautiful and unusual cities. It was founded over 1,400 years ago on a collection of muddy islands in a wide and shallow lagoon. It has been sinking into the mud for centuries and is plagued by floods
The highest peak in Europe is in Italy. Monte Bianco (White Mountain) is 15,771 feet high and is part of the Alps.
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PERSPECTIVE
CON T R I BU TOR S
A B I - ANNUAL JOURNAL BY D’BL ANC VOLUME 01 / ISSUE 02 2 016 PRINTED IN THE U.S. A .
PURVEYORS Derrick Disney @gadogadooo Noa Deane @ilovetables Corey Colapinto @kookapinto MODELS Becca Hiller @beccahiller Brea Warner @breabrea PHOTOGRAPHERS Jean Pierrot @pierrot Amber Chavez @mountainspirit Kenny Hurtado @kennyhurtado Corban Campbell @yewview Steve Neiley @kneelskeez Jeremiah Klein @miahklein Shane Fletcher @shanefletcher Nate Lawrence @lawrencephoto Keegan Fong @blablablessyou VIDEO Charles Bergquist @cbergquist Brian Elliott @brianelliott STYLIST Amanda Gilbert @amandasgilbert WARDROBE Beach Riot @beachriot Hot As Hell @we_are_hah Janessa Leone @janessaleone HAIR & MAKEUP Marygene Walker @marygenemua ARTISTS Robbie Simon @brojazz Niky Roehreke @nikyroehreke ART DIRECTION Steve Neiley @kneelskeez
THANK YOU The Harris Family, The Duguay Family
At D’Blanc all of our products are proudly hand-manufactured in Italy.
This publication was printed in The United States of America on a Heatset press 4/4 8.625” x 13.5” (219.075 mm x 342.9 mm) 82 pages #50 bookweight 92 bright
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c n a l B ’D e hT
E V I T C E PS R E P CNA LB’D YB LANRUOJ LAUNNA - I B A 20 EUSSI / 10 EMULOV 610 2 . A .S.U EHT NI DETNIRP