From suburban high schoolers to Brooklyn-based fashion designers in barely five years, twin sisters Corianna and Brianna Dotson, AKA Coco and Breezy, landed in New York City in the summer of 2009 and, within weeks, their sunglasses made it to the red carpet. Not longer after that, the girls are featured in magazine spreads and doing international collaborations. With a new collection — ‘Translucent Creatures’ — coming out next June, Coco and Breezy’s one-of-a-kind designs won’t leave anyone indifferent. See for yourself!
FN: Your sunglasses are known for their edgy frames, who, or what, is your main source of inspiration? What made you choose to design eyewear in the first place?
C&B: We get inspired by a lot of shapes, architectural shapes; we love to manipulate traditional, classic shapes and, what we call it, Coco-and-Breezy-ed them out. We take the shapes that people are familiar with and then we add our own twist to them, trying to create a balance between a beautiful pair of sunglasses and unique, great quality.
Actually, we were always into fashion and designing, but our interest in sunglasses started because we were bullied as kids—we wore our sunglasses as a shield of protection.
FN: There is always a story behind each one of your collections, what’s the story behind your new collection, Translucent Creatures?
C&B: We are very excited because this collection is a lot different from out latest, ‘OMOROSE‘. The main reason why we named it ‘Translucent Creatures’ is because we were inspired by sea creatures; we even went to an aquarium for inspiration! This collection has more shapes, we played with so many different colors, transparent and open colors and every product has a name based on a sea creature.
FN: What challenges do you find yourselves facing as young designers in the fashion business?
C&B: Staying relevant and constantly coming up with new ideas is always a challenge that we have to keep up with. You always have to be on top of it, coming up with something new at a steady pace.
FN: After collaborating with brands such as Adidas and Copy & Paste Clothier, is there any designer you are dying to collaborate with?
C&B: We would say Milly; Milly is one of our new, favorite obsessions so we would love a collaboration with her. Another collaboration we see ourselves doing is with Linda Farrow.
FN: You sell your apparel both in store and online, what are your thoughts on e-commerce? And, what is your favorite online shopping destination?
C&B: E-commerce is not the next big thing, it is the big thing. Online, people can have access to new brands and new designers that don’t sell physically in their country or state. It is definitely the new way to shop and a lot of people prefer online shopping because it is quick and they can do it worldwide.
We don’t really have any favorite online stores, we are not big shoppers. Since we are entrepreneurs, we put all our money into our business instead of shopping.
FN: With thousands of followers on Twitter and Instagram, how do you think the non-stop growth of social media is affecting the fashion industry?
C&B: Social media is the best thing that ever happened. Nowadays, all the brands have the chance to be known worldwide, to use free marketing and to gain brand awareness everywhere.
FN: Are there any tech trends that directly influence your creative process? How would you incorporate technology into your designs?
C&B: We are interested in the 3D printer, it is one of our goals. We could create prototypes in real time and check how they turned out before sending the final design to the factory.
FN: Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Rihanna and Jourdan Dunn have all been spotted wearing your designs; it must feel rewarding to see your eyewear on such fashion icons. What professional achievements make you most proud?
C&B: Well, we have been able to support working full time for ourselves for four and a half years, we have been working for our company since we started it, which makes us really happy. Everyday, we are thankful to be able to live our dreams.
For more Coco and Breezy, check out their Tumblr, follow them on Twitter and Instagram, and visit their Facebook.
All images courtesy of Coco and Breezy.
