Shady Spex 'Richard Hell'

Shady Spex is the culmination of the friendship between Babs' brother, drummer Sweet Joey Valentine, and DJ Jonathan Toubin. The duo endeavored to create an economically-priced quality sunglass brand based on styles worn by their rock 'n roll icons and friends, that feature quality protective lenses and recycled materials. This design is a collaboration with Richard Hell to recreate the influential NYC musician/writer's iconic 1970s sunglasses. You’ll recognize these from Hell’s ground-zero punk innovations on the cover of the “Blank Generation” single, the back cover of the Blank Generation LP, and in hundreds of canonical photographs of The Voidoids, The Heartbreakers, Television, and beyond. The artist himself has worked with Shady Spex for two years tweaking all details of the frames to develop the most exact re-creation possible of his original, signature shades.