Entireworld’s Scott Sternberg made headlines with his core collection of #WFH sweatshirts, sweatpants, and other essentials last year, but he’s not just sticking with the basics. “We just dropped this whole group of block printed items that we made in India, caftans and separates, really cute,” he says. “Those just went crazy, they sold like hotcakes.”
Also new: a collaboration with Warby Parker that yielded ’70-inspired aviator sunglasses offered in an Entireworld palette of navy, forest green, chocolate, and pastel pink. “The pink came out perfectly,” Sternberg says. “The color is uplifting and it’s an indication of a change in mood.”
Sternberg and Warby Parker’s Neil Blumenthal are betting on a return of optimism and joy. “So many of us have been quarantining for so long,” says Blumenthal. “It’s time for us to reemerge and escape—and what better way to do that than with fun designs and bright colors?”
The pair met, Sternberg remembers, in the late aughts, right as Warby Parker was taking off and at the height of Sternberg’s previous label Band of Outsiders. “I remember being at the Standard Hotel, which doesn’t even really exist anymore, at the pool. Neil and I just nerded out on each other. The business that they built is done in such a pure way and around such a great product. We just hit it off right away.”
“I feel a kindred spirit and a bond with him,” echoes Blumenthal. “He has those shared values around fashion and running a business that is stylish, fun, wearable in almost all situations, and also reasonably priced. I feel like over the years we have given each other business advice, and it’s just been a great friendship.”
Turning their friendship into a partnership felt right. “For so long you had large brands trying to be relevant by partnering with the small cool kid,” Blumenthal says of fashion’s standard fare collab practices. “It’s nice to work as true peers.”
It’s also nice that as a perfectionist by nature, Sternberg instantly understood the nuances of eyewear design. “One of the challenges that we often find with other designers is that eyewear design is different from apparel. Every millimeter counts, every facial feature has to sit just right. Working with somebody like Scott, who is a glasses wearer himself and is just always meticulous and detail-oriented, makes it a pleasure,” says Blumenthal.
Sternberg is a maniac for details. That’s partly what has made his sweatpants and basics emporium so successful—every rib, stitch, and seam is considered for optimum ease. “The reality is that when you’re doing stuff that’s pure, that doesn’t have any bells and whistles, you start to realize that every single centimeter counts. Every little detail that doesn’t seem like a detail is actually really meaningful,” Sternberg says. “These ideas of purity, of minimalism, of modernism, I need those. It’s almost more work from a technical perspective because if it’s not precise and the quality and fabric don’t really align, it’s just going to feel like a commodity. You really have to get everything right in a way that the proportion and finishing are what makes these objects sublime,” he continues. “I think that Neil and I both sort of swim in those waters, in those philosophies of design.”
And so when you don your new shades, you can rest easy knowing that even the shade of blush pink—“Blossom,” Blumenthal corrects me—is perfect.