A lifelike horse, eerily human figures and enormous heads in a clear ball whose eyes followed guests around the room: It was hardly an ordinary Tuesday evening in New York, but then again, Gentle Monster has never been particularly interested in ordinary.
The South Korean eyewear brand took over 23 Wall Street for an elaborate celebration of its “Intelligent Eyewear” collaboration with Google and Samsung, drawing a crowd that included Joaquin Phoenix, Alex Consani, Anok Yai, Charles Melton and Paloma Elsesser.
Guests first selected a pair of glasses before being escorted through a series of fantastical installations, including encounters with dancers and figures that looked almost, but not quite, human. Along the journey the enormous floating heads spoke in different languages, their words translated through the eyewear — a surreal spectacle with a technology purpose.
The scene at Gentle Monster’s “Intelligent Eyewear” private dinner.
Alyssa Greenberg/WWD
The installation was unmistakably Gentle Monster, whose in-house creative teams have helped make its theatrical environments a signature of the brand. The experience opens to the public Friday and runs through Nov. 23, offering visitors a preview of its forthcoming “Intelligent Eyewear” collection developed with Google and Samsung.
Consani and Yai, faces of an upcoming campaign, were more interested in the personality a good pair of sunglasses can provide. Yai recalled that her first pair were pink and came from Walmart. Consani’s were also pink, although hers came from Disneyland.
And sunglasses after dark? “Sunglasses at night is a positive,” Yai declared.
Hankook Kim and Charles Melton
Alyssa Greenberg/WWD
Upstairs, things took a considerably elegant turn. Two long, glossy black tables, dressed with red-orange flowers and flickering candles, welcomed guests for a dinner prepared by acclaimed New York restaurant Atomix.
A saxophonist provided a jazzy soundtrack as guests settled in for an elaborate meal, with service so precisely choreographed that dishes appeared before diners almost simultaneously. Despite the size of the gathering, the mood was intimate and convivial, the kind of dinner where nobody seemed particularly eager to leave post dessert.
Gentle Monster founder and chief executive officer Hankook Kim addressed the room, admitting that he had been nervous about speaking until Phoenix confessed that he was nervous, too.
Kim spoke about his fascination with the space between consciousness and unconsciousness, which he calls the “intermediate world.” After spending time downstairs, guests probably had a fairly good idea of what he meant. He also thanked Phoenix and director Jonathan Glazer for their campaign film, along with Consani and Yai for their work with the brand.
Paloma Elsesser at the Gentle Monster installation.
Alyssa Greenberg/WWD
Elsesser, meanwhile, had a somewhat less philosophical wish for the future.
Asked what she’d most like a digital personal assistant to do for her, the model had a one-word answer: “snacks.”
“I always want something crunchy and something saucy,” she explained, elaborating on her affection for dips, vegetables and assorted sauces.
With the holidays approaching, she was looking forward to “some rest and some reprieve and just recentering.”
Outside, fans were still gathered behind barricades, screaming as the evening’s famous faces emerged into the New York night.
Gentle Monster clearly has quite a fandom and Consani, who received plenty of screams, offered a fitting warning for herself: “My monster, her name is Alex, and she’s always outside. Be warned.”