Thistle Brown’s Eyewear For Up and Downtown

“A beautiful accident” is how designer/stylist/photographer Thistle Brown describes his expanding career in New York City. The New Zealander has recently launched his namesake brand Thistles with a line of sunglasses. Vogue’s Laird Borrelli-Persson reports on the new range.

There are many happy synchronicities in Brown’s story: Technically he’s an island-hopper who moved from New Zealand to Manhattan, where his first job was working for an optometrist. That he’s kicking things off with eyewear takes is a full-circle moment, Borrelli-Persson writes.

As distinct as NZ is from NYC, Brown, who is originally from Whangārei, has carved out a niche for himself as a downtown darling, one whose aesthetic is idiosyncratic rather than mainstream.

Brown wanted to avoid the default association between eyewear and “resort” and steer clear of “the kind of sporty gas station sunglasses that can kind of lean a little too much on the irony of things.”

Original article by Laird Borrelli-Persson, Vogue, May 24, 2023.