As seen online at the Sunshine Coast Daily
Have you ever wondered if you could have too many pairs of sunglasses? You have your starlet pair, your on the water pair, your picnic pair, your favourite pair, a backup pair, the get caught in your hair pair, the sometimes a headband pair and your everyday pair, to name a few.
Whatever the pair you just can’t leave home without them.
This season we’re shading our eyes with retro styles; thick arms, square frames, lightly tinted translucent lenses and sparkling settings. Oh, and sunglasses chains are back in a big way. Thank you, nanna, for your good taste we're taking it all in this spring.
Now, you don’t need to hunt through grandma’s collection to get your eyewear in order (It wouldn’t hurt to do that too) but I have a label for you that once you lay eyes on it, you will need extraordinary powers to shift your stare. Now that sounds much too strenuous. So come, dive with me and immerse yourself in the underwater inspired world that is Maude Studio.
It’s the moment you place a pair of these fantastical frames on your face, that you realise (if you hadn’t already) you can NEVER have too many pairs of sunglasses.
Based on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Maude Studio is perfectly positioned, as it’s the very ocean itself and all that shimmers within that guides the hands of owner and designer Courtenay Stolz.
Each pair of Maude Studio sunglasses are hand-embellished with the most eye-catching iridescent adornments and don’t get me started on the handbags… Oh my goodness, ladies, this is a very dangerous label if you fancy glitter and glam!
Courtenay spends weeks at a time searching through sparkling markets looking for the most special of all the sparkles, so we can have them adorn our fabulous faces, and arms if we happen to order a bag as well.
Often Courtenay will sit for hours or days creating, and when working on larger masterpieces like clutches or shoes, it would not be unusual to find her buried in a sea of treasures, shuffling them around until she finds the perfect combination of colour and depth for the particular piece she is working on.
‘I just love all the colours and textures’ said Courtenay. ‘The amazing thing about iridescent stones is that they absorb their surrounding colours and reflect this into the colours they omit - just like the ocean’.
Often solo in her studio, Courtenay surrounds herself with sounds from artists who inspire her; Christine & The Queens, Sigur Ros and Julianna Barwick are among her favourites if she’s not ear deep in a podcast.
With Victoria currently in lockdown, Courtenay feels it may allow designers to stop and really think about what’s important to them. ‘When you are starting a brand, there is so
much to do, all the time, it’s so overwhelming and can be incredibly stressful’
If she could offer advice for fashion designers who may just be starting their journey during these unusual times, she suggested it may be a wonderful time to use the space to really establish who you are and what you want to create for people.
'Make the pieces you dream of and put them out there for people to see' she said 'The beauty of the internet is that we're able to connect with people remotely, and right now that is more important than ever.’
Ok Courtenay the most difficult question of all; Which are your favourite pair of sunnies you’ve ever sparkled?
‘It is so hard to choose just one. I think that it would have to be the Crystal Deco Iridescent
I love the simplicity of the design married perfectly with a notion of excess’.
‘I also love the Golden Lizard because I think they are super cool and definitely glam but in a subtle way’.
Oh, how I love Courtenay’s idea of subtle, find the marvellous Maude Studio, locally at Uncle George or online at www.maudestudio.com.au