Josephine Skriver is no stranger to raising awareness for causes she cares deeply about. As the child of gay parents, Skriver has made her support for several LGBT charities known, and is something of a Pride mainstay: Just last year, she walked in the New York Pride parade on behalf of the Family Equality Council. Now the model is combining charity with her off-duty accessory of choice: Skriver has teamed up with Illesteva to release a pair of limited-edition sunglasses to benefit Keep a Child Alive (KCA), which brings treatment to children with HIV/AIDS in developing countries. “Being born in a family who has always been nontraditional and kind of unconventional, I know about the stigma that everyone always throws at you, so it really hit me that the world isn’t talking about it anymore and that they treat kids with AIDS so differently,” says Skriver. “I needed to be a part of it right then and there.”
Collaborating with Illesteva was a natural fit for Skriver: The model is a sunglasses junkie, and considers them a staple in her off-duty look. She cites Kate Moss as her ultimate shades inspiration. “If you add [sunglasses] to any outfit, it elevates the look a little bit,” she says. “You say a lot with shapes and colors, according to your mood or what you like, or make a contrast.” For Skriver, her collaboration with Illesteva is a rounded riff on her favorite cat-eye frame. “I wanted to elevate them a little with a cat-eye version,” she says, and the creamy hue lends the sunnies an inter-seasonality: “We are going into fall, so I wanted it to have a feeling of spring and summer.”
The only thing that Skriver hasn’t come up with yet? A way to hold on to her prized pairs. “Sunglasses are the one thing that I lose the most, and I cry all the time! You leave them in the bag and they come out broken, or you forget them somewhere,” she says. And those with similarly sloppy tendencies should be careful: Lose her latest effort, and you’re likely out of luck. Says Skriver: “If you lose one of those, it is really hard to get because it is such a limited collection. It’s just like, ‘Don’t lose them!’ ”
Josephine Skriver x Illesteva sunglasses, $240
illesteva.com
Source: Vogue
