Eyewear Architect
As the only independently owned eyewear label in New Zealand, CASSIUS IS GAINING A CULT LIKE FOLLOWING OVERSEAS. It’s not surprising then that the brand has a stronger following in major fashion capitals from Amsterdam to Tokyo, a reality that creative director Jason Ng is not going to complain about…
International trend spotting website www.thecoolhunter.net sums up the introduction of New Zealand eyewear label Cassius into the lucrative eyewear market, “In a cluttered market like eyewear – where every designer and his Chihuahua has a range – it’s difficult to stand out. Which is why we were excited to discover Cassius, a hot new brand that hails from New Zealand… The Cassius range takes inspiration from architectural proportions, specifically from the work Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus movement. Cassius applies the sharp clean lines, beautiful solid monochrome colours and classic silhouettes to a range that is individual but still wearable”.
With a slew of celebrity fans from modern day pop icons such as fashion heavy songstresses Lady GaGa and Rihanna, to kiwi talent Ladyhawke, the brand has leveraged off press that most New Zealand designers can only dream of. Creative Director Jason Ng is proud of the young label’s gradual rising popularity within the already saturated eyewear market. Ng’s strong marketing push has seen the label featured in top international publications such as Russh (AUS), Push It (UK), Elle (UK) as well as local publications such as Pilot, M2, Cleo, Metro, Remix and Top Gear. Ng has also been in talks with top fashion stylists Nicola Formichetti and Tabitha Simmons, who both style for some of the world’s top fashion publications such as Dazed and Confused, i-D and Vogue. It is this strong PR push for product placement that is seeing Cassius eyewear quickly gaining a reputation for having a distinctive presence and consistent branding.
“Sales are going strong with amazing new accounts internationally–including Reminence Eyewear flagship stores in Japan; Osaka, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Kumamoto etc. and Akira Chicago, the Modern Art Museum in the USA + New York is our strongest market to date followed by Australia” says Ng. Cassius Eyewear is the only independently owned eyewear label in New Zealand (OHL license Kate Sylvester and Sunshades AUS license Karen Walker) and are only one of three in Australia and New Zealand alongside AM and Colab eyewear. (Ksubi has now been licensed). “We have just signed distribution in France, Germany and Italy. In Italy we are with the same people that did Retrosuperfuture and built that brand to what it is today. They approached Cassius because they love the range and can see the same potential in Cassius, so 2010 is going to be a big year.”
Fans of Cassius eyewear can look forward to a new batch of styles to be released in January 2010, followed by another drop in May/June. “I recently travelled to Hong Kong on a PR trip, and that was really successful meeting up with the likes of Sprial and Jet magazines, Puyi, I.T., Kapok, and talking to Taiwanese movie producers and Channel V Asia about Cassius Eyewear” says Ng. “We’ve locked down North America and we’re now established there already which was the goal for 2009. Our goal for 2010 is to concentrate more on the Asian market like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, China and Japan.”–Apparel Magazine, 24-02-2010
Cassius Eyewear was featured in an article by Apparel magazine Editor, Daniel Ahwa, last month. Established in 1969, Apparel magazine is a monthly trade publication offering a comprehensive insight into the clothing, textiles, footwear and accessories industries. Apparel covers every aspect of the fashion industry from marketing, import, wholesale and retail apparel, footwear and textiles, to logistics, technology, recruitment and industry-related education aspects.
