After quite a delicious meal (I chose the french toast), Leight and his CEO David Schulte discussed the optical lifestyle brand with an informal Q&A. I learned that Leight considers the O’Malley frame the “most Chicagoan” and that Chicagoans “have good faces” for sunglasses. We also listened to Schulte discuss how the company had been planning to open a Chicago location for years but patiently waited until the right space opened up. Coincidentally, their Chicago location was built specially for them inside of the former Barneys loading dock in the building that now houses the Hermes flagship. As Leight himself mused, “it doesn’t get any better than saying, ‘You know Hermes? Yeah, we’re in that building.'”
Later in the evening the new space hosted a VIP opening bash. J. Lynne Bredfelt, Nicole Banks, and Suzanne Kopulos were amongst the fashion scene regulars spotted early in the evening. Guests dined on gourmet hors d’oeuvres and sipped on Oliver Peoples-themed cocktails. The evening’s gala was anxiously anticipated by the Chicago fashion industry. Buzz had reached a fevered pitch by Wednesday night with attendance was so high that the party was literally spilling out onto Rush Street only an hour into the event. If the success of yesterday’s PR blitz gives us any indication, Oliver Peoples is poised to become the city’s leading luxury eyewear retailer quite literally overnight.
