California modernism has always thrived on contradictions. Austerity is softened by the ocean breeze and sharp geometry is set against sun and sand. Oliver Peoples leans into this dialogue with Malibu, Forever, its new campaign shot by Matthew Brookes at the Hunt House, Craig Ellwood’s 1957 coastal landmark.
Oliver Peoples Malibu, Forever Campaign
Ellwood himself, a Texan who remade his career in Los Angeles, provides the cultural spine here. His words of wisdom, “Although materials and methods change, the rules must be timeless,” aligns with Oliver Peoples’ approach to design.
Oliver Peoples’ eyewear makes its own architectural statement. The Ryce Sun, all black acetate with grey polar lenses, insists on a sleek, modern silhouette, while the Emryn in Tokyo Tortoise layers depth into a shape that feels worn into memory.
The TK-14, fading from silver to shale gradient, picks up the horizon’s own trick of constant transformation.
Oliver Peoples presents a sense of Malibu as both stage and philosophy. The eyewear functions as a tool for reframing the self, much like Ellwood’s Hunt House reframed a coastline.
Oliver Peoples treats the modernist rulebook with respect but allows in the warmth of California light. It is an argument that timelessness has more to do with reinvention than with stasis.
