Prior to the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, when Toronto Fashion Week was just kicking off, we got a chance to speak with Canadian NHL player Taylor Hall about a new partnership he has entered into with Montréal based eyewear company BonLook.
Hall is a 27 year old player from the New Jersey Devils who in 2010 was selected first overall in the NHL Entry Draft by the Edmonton Oilers.
Hall was born in Calgary and says he never had a thing for fashion until recently. Something that his agent was an influence on.
“I really didn’t get into fashion or clothes or accessories really until, until my early twenties. It just wasn’t something I was passionate about. As I started wearing suits more and more for games, I started getting into, you know, different designers, all that, all that kind of thing.”
Taylor was looking for a Canadian brand to work with when he met with eyewear brand BonLook. They asked if he would be interested in designing a line for them. Taylor felt the company ticked all the boxes for him and they partnered up to make the Taylor Hall series.
“…it was really my first opportunity to design something myself and to work with a brand that was up and coming and purely Canadian. So, that was really fun for me. The process of picking out the eyewear, you know, kind of learning what they thought looked best on me and going from there. So, like I said, my first time designing anything really and it was really educating and a lot of fun.”
There are four styles of frames to choose from with variations in frame colour and shade colour that equal a total of eighteen possible looks. The styles are all named after important places or people in Hall’s life. The styles are Augusta, Kingston, Andrews, and Louise. Frames come in clear all the way to dark colours and lenses can be prescription clear to polarized sunglasses to Photochromatic, the company’s brand of Transition Lenses that change depending on UV exposure.
Taylor Hall’s tastes come from a wide range of influences now. Beyond his agent, other athletes in the league like Tom Brady, as well as general word of mouth and window shopping have brought him to his current appreciations. Companies like Rag & Bone, For All Mankind, and ARI, a jacket of which he was wearing during our interview, are some of his favourites.
“…as I’m getting older and older, I definitely have an eye for it and I feel like it’s something that’s fun to do – to wear different things, to try different styles out, and teaming up with BonLook, you know, to design something now is has been pretty cool.”
After the interview, I visited the store in the Eaton Centre. It is located on the 2nd floor, next door to Roots. The staff there were very nice and were able to explain more about the eyewear and how I can purchase some.
The eyewear has a base price of $149. It you want dummy glasses, clear frames with no prescriptions, very low prescription lenses or non prescription sunglasses, that is all you will pay.
If you want to get a light prescription pair of sunglasses, then a $30 cost is added to the $149. For polarizing lenses, it is $149 + $100.
Photochromatic lenses range from an extra $100 – $200.
Once you have chosen your combination, the order is put in and the pair is sent out from their HQ in Montréal. It can be sent to your place or the store and takes about 10 days to arrive.
If you are interested in finding out more about BonLook, or want to check out their eyewear, please visit their website, or visit one of their stores in the GTA. They are located inside the Eaton Centre, Scarborough Town Centre, Fairview Mall, and Lime Ridge.
