Oversized squares, imposing shields and overblown ’50s cat-eyes all feature in Transformers, Karen Walker’s latest release of eyewear.
Words Carolyn Enting
Oversized squares, imposing shields and overblown ’50s cat-eyes all feature in Transformers, Karen Walker’s latest release of eyewear.
Karen Walker herself is the face behind the campaign, her first time in front of the camera, transforming into fictitious versions of herself. Referencing the work of Cindy Sherman, Walker models the eyewear collection as different characters, including a flaming red Thierry Mugler android, Robert Mapplethorpe, a dissolute Princess and a platinum-stacked Country & Western star.
“In an average day I need to take on so many different personas. That’s modern life for all women. The images for this campaign sprang out of wanting to reflect that multiplicity,” says Walker.
“I was the scientist in the laboratory who resorts to turning the experiment on herself,” Walker says of her hybrid-icon creations. The laboratory in this case being the equally iconic Smashbox Studios in Los Angeles.
“Hollywood just seemed like the perfect location to access this kind of artifice. It’s a city that is built on re-inventing oneself.”
Transformers are available globally from Karen Walker Eyewear retailers now.
