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Gentle Monster: why do we love the South Korean eyewear label?
In the blink of an eye, Gentle Monster has established its glasses as highly stylized objects of desire. Born in Seoul, the brand stands at the crossroads of avant-garde fashion, design, and art. Through iconic collaborations and futuristic aesthetics, the label redefines eyewear as a visual statement.
By Léa Zetlaoui.
With its new Pocket collection, Gentle Monster is once again pushing the boundaries of optical design. If the foldable frames play the functional innovation card, hence their name Pocket, one model in particular steals the show: the Milky Way. Silver metal frames, star-shaped design, and above all, no lenses. Glasses without lenses that turn eyewear into a conceptual fashion accessory.
That’s precisely why Gentle Monster makes a strong impression. No other brand treats eyewear as a total experiment. In just a few years, the South Korean label has elevated its creations to the status of iconic, almost totemic, objects.
Its recent collaborations are proof of this. On one side, the Bratz dolls with their Y2K exuberance, on the other, Maison Margiela and its cerebral minimalism. Two opposing aesthetics that Gentle Monster successfully fuses within its universe.
Gentle Monster, the avant-garde eyewear brand
Founded in 2011 in Seoul by Hankook Kim, the brand was born from a simple observation: the eyewear industry sorely lacked boldness. Gentle Monster decided to reinvent everything, from frame design to the shopping experience, right down to its visual identity.
Inspired by both science fiction and brutalist architecture, the creations feel like futuristic prototypes. Oversized lenses, clean lines, asymmetrical shapes, unexpected materials… The frames seem like they’re coming straight out of a futuristic design laboratory. Here, glasses are conceived as wearable sculptures, blending conceptual art and style performance, far from the classic, mass-produced standards.
But it’s not just about shapes. The Korean label has crafted an immersive universe, nourished by digital culture, robotics, artificial intelligence, and Korean mythology. Every store in the world becomes a full-fledged art installation – humanoid robots are dancing in shop windows in New York, while dreamy creatures come to life between the store’s sections in Seoul. The experience goes beyond the product. It’s a staging of the gaze itself.
This radical approach attracts a sophisticated, cosmopolitan customer base, often from the creative world, and of course, a long list of celebrities, including Beyoncé, Rihanna, G-Dragon, or Jennie from Blackpink. In Korea and in Paris, the label has established itself as the eyewear brand of the avant-garde, creating a bridge between K-pop aesthetics, niche fashion, and experimental design.
The power of fashion collaborations
As one might expect, these collaborations are far from mere marketing gimmicks. On the contrary, they lie at the heart of the brand’s narrative. Each partnership enriches its universe, adding a new texture, voice, lexicon to it. One collaboration after the other, Gentle Monster crafts an avant-garde image with elusive contours.
For instance, its collaboration with Maison Margiela bestows the brand with an almost intellectual legitimacy within the sphere of conceptual luxury, while also proving that it can speak the language of fashion with a capital F. In contrast, the pop-infused, over-the-top collaboration with the Bratz injects a dose of irreverence and Y2K culture, capturing the attention of a younger, more digitally-engaged audience yearning for singularity.
Each project acts as a mirror that reflects, or amplifies, the visual obsessions of Gentle Monster – the mutation of the body, the dramatization of everyday life, the love of controlled weirdness. With Coperni, it explores a futuristic aesthetic where eyewear becomes almost a scientific instrument. With Marine Serre, it pushes the codes of post-apocalyptic chic even further.
Or take the collaboration with Heygère, a brand known for its conceptual jewelry and accessories. Here, glasses become poetic, almost surreal, repository.
A brand riding the K-wave
It’s impossible to talk about Gentle Monster without mentioning its roots in South Korean soft power. Originally from Seoul, the brand rides the K-wave that floods fashion, music, TV series, and global aesthetics nowadays. It fits perfectly into a polished, hyper-controlled visual culture where technology flirts with spirituality. Gentle Monster is its optical embodiment – a brand for those who see the world two steps ahead.
Find out more about Gentle Monster’s eyewear and sunglasses collections on gentlemonster.com.
