TIMESHADES

Last spring Brandpowder was contacted by Marco Mavilla, an Italian fashion guru who has carved a special niche in Italian glamour, stirring the market with his irreverent creations. He was the founder – and master mind – of Toywatch, a small firm he was able to turn into a 30-million dollar business in less than five years. Brandpowder, throughout the years, was responsible for Toywatch’s creativity and developed an international format for the brand.

This time Marco was back with another challenge: launching a top quality collection of Italian sunglasses, enriched by vintage bezels, inspired by watchmakers’ craftsmanship. He needed a name, a logo, and a creative idea. The second challenge was the tight budget. Marco told us this new product was going to be a test, and a bet against all odds, being the eyewear market already crowded by hundreds of mega-brands.

When we tried his glasses we were captivated by a vintage enchantment, a sort of style time-warp. Through the lenses we experienced an interesting slow-down. This stuff was not conventional eyewear. It was something bigger, and better. We wanted to convey a state of mind, a lifestyle philosophy, when we came up with Timeshades: a name that was a mix between space, time and a perception of their interactions. We developed a strong visual idea, halfway between fashion and art, focusing on high quality and craftsmanship.

Timeshades’s images bypass big budgets, top models and star-photographers. It’s a fresh, ironic and iconic alternative to fashion’s status quo.

Opening picture: catalogue cover, the product and first experiments in cross-contamination.

Above: a selection of images from Timeshades’ work in progress. Below: some of the portraits we crafted for the campaign. We retouched each one starting from existing stock photos selected from 123RF.

Above: Timeshades’ 18-piece complete collection.