TEF TALK – Copenhagen Specs:
Dear Leader
While visiting Copenhagen, we ran into a remarkable guy. No, not Kim Jong-un who we saw driving around Amalienborg Palace… We met Mattias from DEAR LEADER. An eyewear company with the goal to help North Koreans see better. And not just with great eyewear. They donate to organizations working actively to bring down the North Korean regime from the inside. How? Just watch our little interview we took at Copenhagen specs.
DEAR LEADER is a unique eyewear brand, who produce high-quality, handcrafted sunglasses with a purpose. By combining fashion with activism, the brand utilises design as a medium through which to promote freedom around the world as a basic human right, and support individuals and organisations working towards a free world.
Their first point of interest and where the inspiration for the project came from, is North Korea. In 2006, founder and film director Johan Stahl, visited the country twice while filming ‘The Red Chapel’ (Sundance Winner 2010).
Notoriously considered to be the world’s most isolated country and as a result labelled ‘The Hermit Kingdom”, North Korea is what many people would consider to be the epitome of a human rights crisis. With little or no access to information and knowledge of the outside world due to strict limitations by the regime, the mission of helping North Koreans to “see” better, began.