How Ugandan Rooted Brand Kimeze is Redefining Eyewear

Eyewear re-imagined

Kimeze is an accessories brand founded by two sisters that specializes in black and brown eyewear. The brand is influenced by African vintage aesthetics as well as the Ugandan roots of its founders, Clare and Christina Kimeze.

Clare and Christina are on a mission to create “choice” because “for something as basic as opticals and sunglasses – something that we all need, everyone deserves to have agency and choice in their eyewear purchase,” they explain.

Prior to the launch of Kimeze, the Oxford graduates had no prior experience or expertise in fashion or eyewear. Clare worked in the city while Christina was and still is an artist, but they were motivated to launch their brand. The goal was to create choice for black consumers.

The motivation to start the brand stemmed from the realization that there was difficulty in finding glasses that suited their preferences. “Eyewear is being designed for caucasian facial features, or East Asian facial features only. Hence, there was no eyewear specifically designed or manufactured for black faces,” they add.

Kimeze eyewear is made in Italy utilizing a combination of ‘time-honored and cutting-edge’ production techniques. The glasses come in three shapes ; the Cat Eye, the Metal and the Oval. In a range of colours, which have been chosen specifically to suit a diverse range of black skin tones

In just a year, kimeze has been featured in GQ, Vogue, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Metro, BBC, Chuckie Online amongst others.

Source: Prazzle Magazine