As the weather turns from summer to fall, the temps drop considerably here in Colorado. It doesn’t seem too many weeks ago the daytime temperatures were well over hovering around 90 degrees Fahrenheit every day and as Halloween approaches are now averaging in the 60’s during the day with nighttime temperatures playing in the low 40’s. Snow will be here before we know it. Fall always puts me in the mood for jazz and I’ve been listening to a little Miles Davis.
Miles Davis had some of his most iconic concerts in October. He played Milan, Italy in October 1964; Rome, Italy in October of 1969; and Fukuoka, Japan in October of 1981. So in honor of those wonderful October performances, it occurred to us that we never got a chance to share the story of Vinylize’s new Miles Davis collection earlier this year.
With 61 studio albums, Davis received 32 Grammy nominations and 8 Grammy Awards in four decades. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. His work continues to be an inspiration worldwide, not only in music but also in fashion.
“Everyone knows his music of course but when I met him, he painted just as much as he played music and then there were his clothes,” Marcus Miller, bassist, composer, and producer of Miles Davis’s band, begins to remember. “Everything played the same role. He was a revelation of who he was and how he wanted to present himself. He knew people cared about him. In addition, clothing was very important back then. “I’m mainly talking about the ’40s and ’50s, because that was a period when black performers were fighting to be recognized as more than just members of the entertainment industry.”
Vinylize shows who Miles Davis was with the Newport frame
Vinylize is the first and only eyewear brand to rethink the model worn by Miles Davis in 1958. In collaboration with his heirs, a frame was created which continues Davis’s tradition of stylistic expression. It goes far beyond his musicality: it is a prime example of the intricate balance of style and content, and his heirs have chosen Vinylize’s expertise to create sunglasses worthy of the musician’s inimitable aesthetics.
“When Miles Davis’s family came to us with the idea, we couldn’t believe it,” says Zack Tipton, founder of Vinylize about the work process. “The tagline of our Vinylize brand is ‘wear the music’, as the frames are made from vinyl records. We’ve always had a good relationship with the musicians with countless international stars wearing our glasses – Robbie Williams, Elton John, or Shawn Mendes. Miles Davis is also an icon in terms of fashion whose style we can only reinterpret with due respect. Miles wore the frame that inspired us in 1958. Newport, like our frames in general, is a limited edition. Only 200 frames are made.”
Where did Davis’s attraction to fashion come from?
Davis’s love of fashion began in his youth, coming from his parents who raised him in Alton, Illinois in an upper-middle-class environment. The musician attributes his early interest in fashion to his mother, writing in his memoirs: “She had mink coats and diamonds. She was a charming woman who loved to wear all kinds of hats, and her friends were as charming to me as she was. She always wore the best clothes. I inherited my looks from her, as well as my passion for clothes and my sense of style.”
Composer and saxophonist Wayne Shorter, who played with Davis for years also remarked about the musician: “That’s how he grew up. He always dressed well, always in harmony with the finer things, and never saw any reason why anyone should be denied these delicacies.”
Herbie Hancock, another legendary figure in jazz said of his former colleague and bandmate: “When I first joined his band, the idea of playing with him also meant that we automatically felt we needed to wear something that would be appropriate to Miles’s company.”
About Vinylize
Handmade in Europe since 2004. Vinylize recycles more than 3 tons of vinyl yearly.
The history of Vinylize goes back to the early 2000s when Zack Tipton performed his first experiments with different plastics. After finding his father’s long-forgotten collection of records in the garage, the brand was born. The first frames were made of old vinyl records from the communist era, bargain-hunted at the flea markets of Budapest.
Vinylize is handmade in the heart of Europe from recycled vinyl. Awarded by Red Dot, A-Design, and Optic For Good, our eyewear designs combine contemporary style with a distinctive, eye-catching approach. We upcycle discarded manmade materials to create handmade eyewear that’s built to last years.
Since then, Vinylize has entered into collaboration with Motown, Maui Jim, Miles Davis; and has designed eyewear for a number of prominent members of the music industry, including AC/DC, Sir Richard Branson, Sir Elton John, Robbie Williams, Mick Fleetwood, Elvis Costello, Shawn Mendes, and Ed Sheeran. The products of the company are marketed all over the globe in over 500 stores. For more information please visit www.vinylize.com.
