LUXURY IS ANONYMITY

For more than three decades, George Cortina has occupied that rarefied space. Having collaborated with photographers such as Peter Lindbergh, Mario Sorrenti, and Mario Testino, and shaped the visual language of brands from Calvin Klein to Giorgio Armani, Cortina has long understood the alchemy of desire and design. His taste is unmistakable: an elegance that resists excess, a sophistication sharpened by simplicity.

His origin story feels cinematic: summers were spent with grandparents whose lives were steeped in art, literature, music, and film. Traveling Europe for months at a time, Cortina spent his childhood moving between continents, absorbing culture firsthand.  Languages, paintings, novels, old cinemas. Studying English literature in New York, he intended to become a professor, before the intoxication of early-1980s Manhattan redirected him toward fashion. The academic’s rigor never left, it simply found a different canvas.

His relationship with Jacques Marie Mage began, fittingly, in Rome nearly seven years ago. Having lost his sunglasses en route to Pantelleria, Cortina wandered into a small boutique and discovered the Dealan. He loved the silhouette, but imagined it stripped of adornment. Soon after, he placed the brand on the cover of GQ, and a creative partnership was soon born, one that now spans six collections. Over time, he has streamlined icons, reimagined proportions, introduced jet-set color stories, and  removed JMM’s signature arrowhead front-pins with a purist’s disdain for overt branding.

For Cortina, eyewear is ornament, an attitude distilled. Yet beneath the glamour and cinematic references lies a philosophy that is perhaps at odds with fashion’s appetite for spectacle. Luxury, he insists, is not a product. It is privacy. The ability to move through the world unmarked. To travel, to read, to listen, to be.

What follows is a conversation about cinema, craftsmanship, culture, and why, in an age of exposure, the rarest indulgence may be anonymity itself.

Andrew Pogany (AP): How did you first become familiar with JMM?

George Cortina (GC): I found Jérôme's sunglasses about seven years ago in a little shop in Rome called Monocle. I had lost my sunglasses, and I was going to Pantelleria to stay with friends, and I needed a pair of sunglasses and a concierge at my hotel said, ‘George, there's only one shop that you'll like, and it's called Monocle. They've got very cool sunglasses.’ So I went and I found the Dealan. And I was like, ‘Oh, I love the shape of the sunglasses. But if I did them, I’d do them without those metal things that they have.’ But that's a personal thing, They're beautiful nonetheless. 

Then when I came back to the United States after that summer, I had a shoot about a year later, and I said, let's get those sunglasses and put them on the cover of GQ. So, we did a cover of Keanu Reeves in sunglasses, looking like a gangster. And then I started using only his sunglasses to put on covers, before anybody was using them in editorials, really. That was the beginning. About two years later, Jérôme called me and asked if I wanted to collaborate.

AP: What was the experience of releasing that first collection?

GC: We were sitting in his old office in Hollywood, and he said, ‘Well, what would you like to do?’ And I said, ‘Well, first of all, I would like to take the Dealan and do them with pale blue lenses and take those things off the sides.’ 

AP: You're referring to the brand’s signature arrowhead front pins?

GC: Yes. I said, ‘We won't do the arrowheads.’ And then I'd like to take the Jagger and change it and make it more square at the bottom and less slanted. And I'd like pink and blue lenses on a gold frame. So, that's what we did, and then we revisited the concept again in several different color combinations. 

Then we did the Cortina, which were inspired by a pair of ‘70s sunglasses that I owned, which were aviators. I’d chosen five Porsche Carrera colors from the era. So one was yellow, one was red, one was pale blue, one was white, and one was black... 

I can't believe I remember all this stuff. 

AP: I can’t either, it's pretty amazing. 

GC: I know! So, those sold out immediately, 'cause everybody wanted them. No one had seen that before. And then we did the Ritz, the Hollywood, and the Scarface. And now we're redoing the Hollywood and Cortina, ‘cause I always wanted to do metallic lenses. All the Hollywoods feature metallic lenses now. And all the color stories are named after classic movies, like Chinatown and French Connection.

AP: Having been with the brand for so long, how would you characterize the brand's evolution?

GC: Well, it's exploded, but I have to say, having worked with models and celebrities, the minute you put sunglasses on a major celebrity, that’s it. 

AP: Would you say eyewear is different in that sense, then other accessories or pieces?

GC: Very different, because it's such an iconic thing to put on a face, unlike something put on a body. It's like an ornament for a very famous face. 

AP: And how about in regards specifically to the George Cortina for JMM collection— how would you characterize its evolution from Release 1 to the present? 

GC: They're actually all connected, because they're all extremely jet set. They're very European. They're very cinematic. And they have nothing to do with L.A. <laugh> ‘Cause I'm not interested in that. Or New York for that reason. 

I'm a cinephile, so a lot of inspiration comes from Golden Hollywood, yes, but also 

French cinema and Italian cinema. From Mastroianni to Alain Delon, there's just so many references that I have.

AP: How is it working closely with Jérôme, who also is so full of cultural reference points? 

GC: Jérôme is a very good partner. He works with me on ideas. It's not competitive in any way. It's just sort of like two nerds working on a project. <laugh>

And he knows how to make beautiful sunglasses. That's one of the reasons I initially wanted to work with him. It's interesting to have something you want and have it made really well. Sometimes that's better than anything—when an idea is conceived perfectly. 

AP: I’ve always appreciated your interpretation of the Dealan, stripping or streamlining it of some of its signature elements.

GC: I minimized it to nothing but the design. What I don't like, and I've never liked, is detectable ‘designer clothes’ or anything that has to do with it. I don't believe clothes should have labels. I don't think shoes should have labels. I certainly don't think sunglasses should have labels or brands on them. So yes, I like to strip everything down, which is why I have everything hand-made, including my shirts, shoes, and even some of my jumpers.

AP: Does this perhaps reflect your philosophy regarding simplicity and its relation to luxury. Is that something you can elaborate on? 

GC: I don't believe that luxury should extend to clothing or accessories. I think it's a terrible word and it's really overused. For me, luxury is the ability to sometimes be anonymous in today's world. To be able to go and to travel when you want to travel, to be able to go and spend time with your friends. To listen to beautiful music, to read amazing books in a wonderful setting, to visit awe-inspiring and interesting places. That to me is luxury.