Darkside Eyewear
Darkside was an independent luxury eyewear brand I founded and built from the ground up, inspired by minimalism, urban culture and a belief in buying less, but better.
With a philosophy of slow living and timeless design, Darkside was about creating pieces that last beyond seasons and trends. No big logos or unnecessary details. Just strong, clean shapes, quality materials and craftsmanship. Each pair was designed in Porto and handmade in Portugal by skilled local artisans.
From product design and manufacturing to brand positioning, creative direction, marketing and sales, I managed every aspect of the business. Through fashion campaigns, storytelling and collaborations with creatives and tastemakers, I built a distinctive brand identity and an international customer base across e-commerce and selected stockists.
Buy less, choose well, make it last.
Motto and Philosophy
A Subtle Revolution
Take a step back. Breathe in, breathe out. Take your time. Take it slow! It’s a subtle revolution. No explosions. No fights. Slow living is now a rising value at the heart of all our worries. It’s no longer a concept but a reality that transforms lives.
Today, all over the world, we dream of having time. We want a slowing of the pace, and we look for answers on how to achieve it. We’ve had enough of running, from morning to night, saturated with computers and smartphones attached to the body, hands clasped to the screens when they could have been caressing, carving, and transforming. We’re fed up with the imperatives of ‘more’: more profitable; more results, which we forcefully privilege to the detriment of personal, intimate, family, love life, or friends.
So why does this need to slow down if mankind has done nothing but accelerate the march, from discovery to discovery, from progress to progress, supposedly for our benefit? Maybe we’ve reached the breaking point. The Internet, e-mails, and smartphones initially caused an understandable drunkenness. But now, we’re hungover.
We believe in ‘buy better, buy less’ so we build eyewear that lasts beyond seasons and trends, using the labour-intensive manual processes that define handmade eyewear. It’s better for you, for our local economy, and for the environment.