From Ethan Hawke to Sean Avery, everyone wants a pair of sunglasses from newly launched NYC-based eyewear brand, Smoke & Mirrors.
Co-founded by born and bred New Yorker David Shabtai and inspired by
the '60s and '70s rock scenes, the brand melds traditional craftsmanship with innovative manufacturing techniques (more on that later). We talk to Shabtai about the company's beginnings, their new campaign collaboration with DeerDana and why NYC is integral to the brand.
David ShabtaiTell me about your design background.
I grew up here in Manhattan and went to college here as well at NYU Gallatin. At eighteen I was working for my dad's jewelery company, Di Modolo, doing a bit of design and also overseeing production. I was learning how to make things, specifically in jewelry, and I was working with my cousin who is now my partner. While we were in Italy where [Smoke & Mirrors] started -- we now do all of our production in France -- we created the bones of this collection but we waited three years before we wanted to put anything out. We're just launching now -- this is our first season.
And what made you want to design sunglasses specifically?
Eyewear made sense because it was something that I always collected and loved. It's a really intimate accessory. There's also an utility aspect because people use glasses in order to see. It's a very functional piece that needs to also represent your own personal style. That's what we're about. My twenty five-year-old ex-girlfriend wears the same pair of sunglasses that my 67-year-old father does. Our brand is unisex.
It's hard to find a ton of information on the brand. Is this vagueness intentional? Or is it because you launched so recently?
I wouldn't say there is an intentional vagueness. We're new. If you look at the way we are marketing ourselves and the way we put information about our brand out there, it's not a big blast. We've been doing wheatpaste campaigns and collaborating with artists and people we love. Our most recent campaign we worked on is a collaboration with DeerDana's Dana Veraldi.
How'd that collaboration come about?
We're starting this artist series where we want to be in the streets with different creatives all the time. I think Dana was a really great way to start. She's fun and I love her work. We wanted to do something with the faces of our favorite restaurants in New York. We're a New York brand so that made sense. We took Ali[reza Niroomand] from Sant Ambroeus, Maya [Jankelowitz] from Jack's Wife Freda, Arnaud [Hofmarcher] from Cherche Midi who used to be at Pastis, and Tom [Waugh] from ZZ's Clam Bar. I didn't want to use models. I think the people who represent Smoke & Mirrors are the ones with their own independent style, and people who have mastered a craft. Who love what they do. Who respect themselves and see art in whatever it is that they are doing. I think that Dana was a great person to use because she is really close, as are we, with the people we used in this campaign.
via But at the same time, you've collaborated with various celebrities like Ethan Hawke and Sean Avery. What's the story with them?
Again, it's people we know and love. I have a really good friend who has a bathing suit company called Solid & Striped and he was doing a campaign with Sean Avery and Hilary Rhoda. We had the glasses in the [Solid & Striped] showroom for a bit and they saw them so we were able to work them into different things like their campaign. Danielle Nachmani does the art direction for us and she is also a well-known, incredible stylist and human being. She styles Ethan Hawke so he wears the glasses. He has a bunch of pairs and loves them.
Do you think growing up in NYC helped establish these connections?
Definitely. Growing up here is definitely an asset in a lot of ways because you have a head start. You know how things work, where everybody is, who people are. I think it definitely gets the conversation going. You know who to go to and who to help you out.
What makes Smoke & Mirrors different from other indie eyewear brands? It's really all about craftsmanship. We have a technique of double shooting -- we're the first people to ever weld two pieces of acetate together seamlessly in a way that feels like one piece and yet it's two completely separate colors, two completely separate materials, not attached by metal or glue -- they are really one sheet. In terms of our styling, our designs are all unique. There's not a lot out there that's similar to us.
Where can you find Smoke & Mirrors?
We aren't selling online yet. In New York, you can find us at American Two Shot, Ultimate Spectacle, Fivestory. Tenet in South Hampton. And in Miami we're at Vault, and Babalu.
Check out Smoke & Mirrors' website here.
Kanye West, thinking about love and stuff. Photo by 
Omg. [
Sorry, all sold out of social media. [
This would work as a good daily aphorism: "You're amazing and LOOK out Oprah!" See? You feel better already. [
Shia LaBeouf (with his face intact). Photo by 
Johnny Love (left) and friend.
One of the 
Photo via 
Cory Angel, Working On My Novel, 2014 Published by Penguin Books Ltd. 
Sibling, KTZ, Nasir Mahzar, Christopher Shannon, J.W. Anderson. Images (c) catwalkpictures.com
Grooming by Dylan K Hanson for MAC / Cosmetics at Artists at Wilhelmina Image Board NYC / Modeled by Quiller Sharratt at Major Model Management / McQ by Alexander McQueen jacket
Photography by Ashley Nguyen, Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions 
Still
on view here in the Big Apple -- it's up until October 19th -- is a new
show of works by the acclaimed music photographer Mick Rock called
"Exposed" at 
Brooklyn Rail publisher (and artist, writer and curator) Phong Bui has a big group show called "
Petzel Gallery (456 West 18th Street) opens a new exhibition by the London-based artist John Stezaker on October 9, 6 to 8 p.m. featuring several large-scale silkscreens based on classic movie stills, plus the U.S. premiere of a film called "Blind." It's on view until November 8.
"Shadows & Blood" at 
The artist, blogger -- and 
Also check out the cool and minimal exhibition of two, juxtaposed works at 
Photo by Matteo Prandoni/BFAnyc.com
The crowd waiting to get into Area in the '80s.
Photo by Linda Simpson.
Jim Hansen, the mind behind those genius 
A new Beastie Boys biography not only comes from a highly credible author, Frank Owen, it includes an "Unofficial and Unauthorized" warning on the cover. 
Owen quickly understood that, in the beginning at least, the Beastie Boys were, "playing the roles and speaking the lines that someone else had written for them." All that crack smoking (while high on angel dust) was probably just "posturing." They hadn't actually "pulled out any jammies" or "capped" a lot of people in the knees; and, sorry to debunk any myths about your idols, but Ad Rock didn't really cut a hole in a hotel room floor to reach MCA below.
MCA, Mike D, DJ Hurricane and Ad Rock. (Photo credit: REX/Ilpo Musto)