EXCLUSIVE: Eva Mendes on Her Sustainable Look Optic Eyewear Collection Honoring the ‘Moral Barometer’ Set for Her Children’s Future

The line of progressive readers and sunnies has frames made of recycled plastic.

October 16, 2024, 12:16pm

Eva Mendes, look optic, sunglasses, readers, eyewear, tortoise shell frames, shiny maroon, progressive readers, stylish readers, glasses with big frames, — Courtesy of Look Optic

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Eva Mendes accepted a hard truth before diving into with her latest venture: her phone text could only get so much larger.

“I’m at that stage and have been where I definitely need readers. I can’t lie to myself anymore, you know?” Mendes says.

Her collaboration with Look Optic, the Evita collection, is a less clinical option to the inevitable need for reading glasses — a need she approaches with both a practical mindset and a nod to her personal history.

The Evita line features oversized readers in bone, maroon and tortoise, along with sunglasses with bone or tortoise-colored rims. With a price range from $68 to $98, Mendes wanted to ensure that style doesn’t have to come at an exorbitant price. “The more stylish readers I was drawn towards were too expensive because I wanted more than one pair,” Mendes explains. As anyone who uses readers know, they have the pesky habit of suddenly disappearing just as you need them, making a back-up pair something of a necessity.

Eva Mendes, Look Optic, readers, eyewear, Evita glasses, shiny bone, stylish readers, cheaters reading glasses — Eva Mendes in the Evita readers in the Shiny Bone colorway. Courtesy of Look Optic

Convenience is also key in Mendes’ design, with the line featuring progressive lenses. “It’s incredibly convenient with kids,” she says.

The collection’s name, Evita, is a sentimental nod to Mendes’ mother. “I call them the Evita because that is a nickname of mine, but it’s really what they called my mom,” Mendes says. The larger framed readers are reminiscent of her mother’s eyewear. “When I was little, I just picture her being so beautiful, and she was always wearing big readers,” she recalls of the readers, which often featured plastic or metal frames. Mendes’ Look Optic eyewear uses recycled plastic to recreate those nostalgic silhouettes.

“Authenticity is paramount to the success of any partnership. This is why we could not be more excited about our collaboration with Eva Mendes,” Andrew Leary, the founder of Look Optic, told WWD via email. “Last year, before we had ever met, Eva posted that Look Optic made the perfect Mother’s Day gift. So, we immediately asked if she would like to design a frame with us. The result is what I believe is our best style yet — Evita. Which truly looks beautiful on her.”

While Mendes toyed with the idea of even larger frames, she compromised to accommodate those accustomed to smaller, drugstore options. “I want people to be comfortable, but also to help them push their style a bit,” she says. The collection’s color palette is particularly exciting for Mendes, especially the Shiny Bone, an off-white hue with a sheen not typically seen in readers. “It’s definitely a choice,” she admits, one she hopes will encourage wearers to embrace bolder eyewear.

Eva Mendes, Look Optic, readers, eyewear, Evita glasses, tortoiseshell, stylish readers, cheaters reading glasses — Eva Mendes in the Evita readers with a tortoiseshell frame. Courtesy of Look Optic

Mendes is also hoping more people will embrace sustainable fashion. She counts Stella McCartney, a designer whose sustainability efforts started long before it was in vogue, as an inspiration on that front. “I am currently working with Stella McCartney and just loving it, couldn’t be happier” Mendes says. “Working with someone that is so inspiring and doing so much the right way, it’s the best.” She starred in the designer’s fall 2024 campaign featuring the designers uncensored environmental manifesto “It’s About F–king Time.”

Mendes also sat front row at Stella McCartney’s spring 2025 show, where the collection was realized with 91 percent sustainable materials. “Hence not a single feather was plucked for McCartney’s collection,” Miles Socha wrote in his review of the show for WWD. “Instead there were doves printed on airy silk dresses, Prince crooning how they shouldn’t cry and puffball bomber jackets that truly resembled fluffy chicks. The designer explained they were made from recycled plastic bottles extruded into a cloud-like material.”

Mendes says her children are her “moral barometer,” helping guide her sustainable choices with their future in mind.

“It sounds so cliché, but when you have kids, for me anyway, everything changes — the way I view the future changes,” she shares. “I’m literally leaving this to them. All my decisions have changed. Everything, how I support myself, how I deal with things, my fashion choices, and I see it as a beautiful thing.”