Posts in category: Allgemein

The fashion months are already over and I found some interesting upcoming trends for you.

Hot Topics: Eyewear Chains, Big big! Glasses, Shields again and ordinary shapes

Photos by Artem Lonov, Eyerepublic

We discuss how she built her blogging and greater eyewear empire with sustainability and style.

It takes a cer­tain degree of dri­ve, pas­sion and above all self-con­fi­dence to even imag­ine the lev­el of suc­cess which Aus­tri­an cre­ative and busi­ness queen Jen­nifer Bitsche has achieved. She’s the founder of Faceprint, a dis­tinc­tive eye­wear blog ded­i­cat­ed to explor­ing the increas­ing­ly diverse range of eye­wear prod­ucts and optom­i­cal inno­va­tions, and togeth­er with her hus­band she runs one of the most dar­ing­ly cool and aes­thet­i­cal­ly inno­v­a­tive eye­wear con­cept stores in Aus­tria: Hin­guck­er. With the inten­tion to pro­vide an hon­est and insight­ful per­spec­tive, Jen­nifer has been able to craft a busi­ness mod­el that offers its cus­tomers the chance to learn specifics about a prod­uct; where it comes from, how its designed and how it can be improved. 

In an age where mar­ket­ing aims to curate a false truth for the sake of income, this hon­est con­cept seems to be some­thing hard to come by. Above all, Jen­nifer has pro­vid­ed a rare thing, a brand and busi­ness built with the desire to inform and inspire. We got the chance to speak with this cre­ative vision­ary behind the artistry, pro­vid­ing cus­tomers with a unique per­spec­tive on the inno­va­tion and extra­or­di­nary designs found in the wide range of eyewear.

You clear­ly have a spe­cial pas­sion for eye­wear and prod­uct design, what is it that you find so fas­ci­nat­ing about eyewear?

If you look some­body in the face, glass­es are the first thing you will rec­og­nize. With every style and col­or, the wear­er stets an indi­vid­ual state­ment. So I look at a face and always ask myself, what’s the sto­ry behind this face?

Your hus­band is an optometrist and has col­lab­o­rat­ed with you on the devel­op­ment of your con­cept store, Hin­guck­er, and it seems that each of you holds a spe­cif­ic skill set and dif­fer­ent kind of inter­est in eye­sight. How does your rela­tion­ship inspire your brand and its growth?

As you already said, my hus­band is the optometrist and has a deep pro­fes­sion­al knowl­edge. I stud­ied mar­ket­ing and was always focused on recog­nis­ing and search­ing for trends. Per­son­al­ly, I do not chase every sin­gle trend, I want to have a deep­er knowl­edge of it and always have a proof of qual­i­ty and design. Always stay­ing true is one of the most impor­tant things. Also, our range in Hin­guck­er is not per­suad­ed by trends that come and go. We stick to qual­i­ty pieces that we know will last the test of time. 

How do you, as a cou­ple, bal­ance work­ing togeth­er in a pro­fes­sion­al & prac­ti­cal busi­ness part­ner­ship with your roman­tic relationship?

We have clear­ly set our respon­si­bil­i­ties, but that was also easy because of our edu­ca­tion. Hon­est­ly, we real­ly talk a lot about our busi­ness, our goals and our vision, but we do try to talk less about our com­pa­ny, as we don’t real­ly sep­a­rate busi­ness from free time. Basi­cal­ly, both our rela­tion­ship and our busi­ness rep­re­sent our future and so we have tried to make the best out of everything. 

How can design­ers, store own­ers and advo­cates like your­self main­tain the bal­ance between the increas­ing demand for fash­ion­able prod­ucts with the need to cre­ate and sell sus­tain­ably?

Some­times you have to think trans­verse­ly and make a step out of the box. Have a goal, have a focus and stay on your path. Then you will find the per­fect prod­ucts con­cern­ing sus­tain­abil­i­ty, design or qual­i­ty for you and your cus­tomers. Nowa­days sus­tain­abil­i­ty is not just nice, these days it’s indis­pens­able. Nat­u­ral­ly, you can’t change every­thing in your busi­ness in one day, but if you focus on goals and make it step by step, you’re on the right way.

Both Faceprint and Hin­guck­er have emerged from their hum­ble begin­nings as suc­cess sto­ries and their reach is only ever-expand­ing! How did you find the tran­si­tion from blog­ger to busi­ness own­er and where do you see your busi­ness mov­ing from here?

It’s not real­ly a tran­si­tion, because both of them are my busi­ness and my pas­sion. Faceprint is my cre­ative path and visu­al space to bring you clos­er to the eye­wear indus­try. Hin­guck­er is my phys­i­cal path to show in a more tan­gi­ble space that eye­wear is not just a nice acces­so­ry but also a strong state­ment and neces­si­ty. But Hin­guck­er is more than just eye­wear, Hin­guck­er is more like a liv­ing room, where you can find prod­ucts for your­self, like inte­ri­or items, books, care prod­ucts, Gin & Whiskey, jew­ellery and so on. All of them are spe­cif­ic pieces, with good qual­i­ty, awe­some design and of course, with a sto­ry behind them.

Do you remem­ber your first pair of glass­es? How has your style and rela­tion­ship to your glass­es changed?

Oh yes, I do. And it was hor­ri­ble. I real­ly hat­ed to wear my speck­led blue glass­es and the teacher at my school always forced me to wear the glass­es oth­er­wise I had to sit in the front row. Time and style have since been chang­ing and I’ve been con­stant­ly look­ing for more accept­able and awe-inspir­ing glass­es. The more I was get­ting to know this branch, dif­fer­ent labels and the pos­si­bil­i­ties, the more I was get­ting pas­sion­ate about it. I real­ly like to see fan­cy and colour­ful glass­es on oth­ers, but I am more the type who suits or prefers the min­i­mal­ist, laid back style. I always want to feel com­fort­able in the clothes and glass­es I wear, with effort­less ease and true style. 

Interview: by neubau eyewear
Photos: Marina Schedler Photography
You see: neubau eyewear
Location: Schlosshofen, Hörbranz, Austria 

I am wearing model “South Park”, a hot, urban yet fashionable frame by Düsseldorf Eyewear. The combination of round glasses, modern stainless steel frame and stylish double bridge on this cool metal frame, promises a fusion of vintage and modern, which makes the design of the “Dusseldorf – Südpark” absolutely timeless.

Inspired by the Düsseldorf lifestyle, the local architecture and the latest trends in the city, each of the models understands in a versatile way how to tease out and underline the individual character of their wearer. For this, we like to go through the various parts of the city and pick up distinctive features in our versions, which gives each model its very special connection between the urban trends and its Düsseldorf namesake. 

Patrionism, experimentation and trend awareness are what make a Düsseldorf Eyewearglasses a very special accessory. Eyewear not only as a visual aid, but as an expression of the character, discover as a way of life – That is what Düsseldorf Eyewear is all about.Being based in and inspired by the German city Düsseldorf, all their frame models are named after a district of this beautiful old city. In this case, Südpark (South Park).

The diversity of their city Düsseldorf was processed in their designs, to match your appearance perfectly with their fashionable, character-strong designs and high end materials, giving you the freedom to be yourself. Inspired by the daily life, their designers move through the city, breathing in the soul of the Rhine river and terraces.

During the Night Life in  Old-town or just to the bar around the corner, they see hip old buildings, cobbled streets in between, an old warehouse with brick and rusty steel girders behind. A few hundred meters away are new, modern buildings made of glass, steel and smooth concrete. These different characters and experience and all their cool facets are embedded in the core of the brands design. Like to know more, check out their website at duesseldorf-eyewear.com

Photos: Marina Schedler Photography
Eyewear: Düsseldorf Eyewear
Blogpost first published on: The Eyewear Forum