gwen II honestlyjamie.com
Gwen did a brief interview with fan Jamie Stone at the launch of her new lambxgx collection.
Where did you get your inspiration for the L.A.M.B. sunglasses and gx Eyewear designs?
Honestly, everything I’ve ever done is selfishly inspired by myself (we laugh together). I’ve wanted to do sunglasses for so long and it never came together, then I finally got the right partners and, weirdly, after having Apollo I needed reading glasses for the first time! It’s weird because my whole family has them and I never needed them before! I wanted them to look good if I have to wear them! And then my son, who’s been wearing glasses since he was probably five inspired me because it was hard to find glasses that were cool and I didn’t get to do the junior’s line until just recently and that’s been super exciting. It’s just a really fun thing- really trying to make that be like stuff that kids would want to pick themselves, but I also wanted styles that look like shrunken grown up glasses, and that’s a really hard thing to find in the market…so we did a little bit of both. My son helped me design the emoji glasses because he actually stuck emojis on his glasses with a glue gun and I wanted to use his idea! It’s all removable and you can collect different emojis to use every day. Optical has been super shockingly fun to do.
And sunglasses I’ve wanted to do forever…they make such a huge statement. And growing up in the 90s in the hip hop culture, they’re just a huge part of a look, you know? My whole thing about my look has never been one thing, it’s always been about a combination. The masculine and the feminine, the makeup, it’s just all of that combined is what makes that, and sunglasses are a huge part of that.
Tell us about your beauty regimen.
I’m one of those people that’s really simple; I wash my face, put moisturizer on and I’m good to go. I am crazy about makeup and I told Revlon 100 times they’re so smart to pick me because I’m really obsessed with makeup and, weirdly, when you have to wear glasses you can wear a little more makeup and I’m so into that. But I’m quite simple…when you think about it, I’m a girl that’s been in a band since I was 17 years old. I traveled the world on a bus with all guys and you really kind of have to keep it simple, but not makeup-wise (we laugh again). I haven’t worn a red lip all summer but this is my first day back!
If you could give your 22-year-old self any advice what would it be?
That’s a good question. Personal stuff aside, honestly when I look back at everything, the one thing that really worked for me was to just be honest and real and who I am. That’s what won at the end of the day. All that fake-ness is never gonna get you anywhere. Being me worked.