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© Inès Olympe Mercadal
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Inès-Olympe Mercadal reveals all about her unique style and her passion for vintage eyewear
Inès-Olympe Mercadal, aka “IOM,” is a multi-faceted designer with a bold, warm, colorful approach, championing a retro, 1980s style and iconic eyeglasses. As a member of the Mercadal shoemaking dynasty, she naturally began by designing footwear collections before moving on to ready-to-wear lines, multiple fashion collaborations, and even two singles and a music album! For the past three years, she has been delighting us with her passion for vintage tableware. EYESEEmag went to meet her to find out more about her inspirations and her subtly eccentric world.
– Interview by Yanita Kostova-
What’s new with you at the moment?
This season, I was lucky enough to collaborate with Maisons de Monde and I think we managed to develop a festive dining collection that really reflects my image: vintage and welcoming. I deliberately decided to mix different tableware items to create something both harmonious and irregular. It’s the way we set the table that I enjoy the most.
© Maison du Monde
This collection has a very strong identity and is a fitting reflection of your creative world and your image.
Yes, it’s very me, and I think that really comes through. There are all the lifestyle codes that I love and use all year round.
Your glasses are a cornerstone of these codes and your world. What relationship do you have with eyewear?
I like to say that glasses are like my second pair of shoes, because I’m a former footwear designer and because I combine the spheres of art direction, creation, and fantasy.
© Emmanuelle Khanh glasses
Have you ever had the chance to showcase these codes in the eyewear world?
Today, I’m expressing my creative identity through the home, and tableware in particular, but in the past I’ve also designed shoes and eyewear. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to work with Emmanuelle Khanh revisiting one of her iconic designs from the 1980s.
With that in mind, what draws you to vintage eyewear?
I love vintage eyewear. It enhances women’s facial contours and makes us look sexy. We can be everything from vamps to pin-ups. I just love the whole retro aesthetic. You can find a full vintage theme in my tableware creations, including nods to the 1970s and 1980s, shoulder pads, glasses, lipstick, leopard print, and gold.
© Inès Olympe Mercadal
How does vintage inspire you in your creative choices and how you pick your glasses?
For example, with Maisons du Monde, we created an exclusive leopard print that I find incredible, a shading of blue, midnight blue, and gold. I love this motif; you can tell by what I’m wearing today. I’m like a spotted and speckled leopard-chameleon. I also love it on my glasses; I have several pairs with this pattern.
If you were a pair of glasses, would it be one like that?
It would be a fanciful, sexy, vintage pair with butterfly shapes that are always so flattering for women’s faces.
© Thierry Lasry glasses
Who is your favorite eyewear designer?
For years, I’ve been wearing glasses by Thierry Lasry. I absolutely adore this brand. The models have a very bold identity that really speaks to me. And the same goes for their sunglasses.
What would your perfect pair of sunglasses look like?
I think they already exist, and they’ll be somewhere in the collections by Thierry Lasry.