Jeremy Strong Is Pairing Up With Jacques Marie Mage, Kendall Roy’s Favorite Sunglasses Brand
Style“I have a ton of sunglasses—they are an indulgence and a pleasure and an essential part of my armor,” the actor tells GQ.By Eileen CartterNovember 12, 2024Courtesy of Collier Schorr for Jacques Marie MageSave this storySaveSave this storySaveIn the years since he portrayed the prodigal failson Kendall Roy on the hit HBO series Succession, the actor Jeremy Strong has let his personal sartorial proclivities become central to his own dramaturgical lore. His fans are aware of his appreciation for intuition-based dressing, bucket-hat sprezzatura, and the “monastic chic” qualities of the color brown.Those fans may also be familiar with the actor’s affinity for Jacques Marie Mage, the luxury eyewear label founded by Jerome Mage, a French expat who set up shop in Los Angeles in 2015, and favored by style-minded Hollywood men like Jeff Goldblum, Paul Mescal, and Kit Connor. For Succession’s final season, Strong reached out to Mage to create a custom pair of Ripley shades for Kendall, plus an extra identical pair for himself—both inscribed with the initials KLR, for Kendall Logan Roy. (As Strong, who was involved in his character’s costuming throughout the series, told GQ last year, “I do know where one ends and the other begins.”)Courtesy of Jacques Marie MageCourtesy of Jacques Marie MageToday, Strong and Mage—kindred in their philosophical approach to fashion—are launching an official limited-edited collaboration: the Duende by J.S. frames, which the actor co-designed. The aviator shades, crafted from Japan-made acetate, feature the brand’s signature visible wirecores engraved with “energetic, abstract artwork” by Strong himself. They come in four colors including a requisite brown (“tobacco”), though per the press release the actor’s color of choice here is a translucent lime called “poison green.” (Combining green and brown tones is another Strong signature, as evidenced by his mint-chocolate Prada ensemble at the 2023 Met Gala.)“I have a ton of sunglasses—they are an indulgence and a pleasure and an essential part of my armor,” the actor told GQ via email this week. “Basically, I wanted to create what I felt were the perfect pair of sunglasses. To me, Jerome’s work is best in class and so the chance to do that with him—with the level of craftsmanship and vision at his disposal—was just a pure pleasure.”Courtesy of Jacques Marie MageIn true Jeremy Strong fashion, the Duende frames are named after an impish demon found in Spanish folklore, a figure that Strong first encountered in the work of the 20th-century Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca; the mischievous duende, the actor said, “has been a vital companion in life since then.” In turn, each pair of Duende by J.S. shades will come with a limited-edition chapbook of García Lorca’s 1933 lecture on the folkloric figure, printed in the original Spanish with an accompanying English translation.García Lorca’s theory of the duende, Strong said, mirrors the actor’s well-documented razor’s-edge approach to his craft. “His idea of the ‘point of danger’—that boundary line where you must give up your volition and surrender to the unconscious—is the guiding and essential principle in what I do,” Strong said. “Joyce Carol Oates may as well have been writing about Duende when she wrote, in her [1987] essay ‘On Boxing’: ‘Even as he disrobes himself ceremonially in the ring the great boxer must disrobe himself of both reason and instinct’s caution as he prepares to fight.’ Duende is, to me, the most central and determinative aspect of any creative work.”Courtesy of Jacques Marie MageCourtesy of Jacques Marie MagePer Strong, partnering with Mage was an extension of this creative credo. Describing their collaborative design process, Strong said Mage would “send me photos of the creation of the wirecore, of newly minted acetate from his atelier in Japan, of cutting recently unearthed turquoise in New Mexico with his Acoma Pueblo artist.” They stayed close throughout the process.“Collaborating with Jerome is as much about content as it is about form,” the actor said. “The design is dictated by shared instincts, a shared quest for a kind of aesthetic perfection and an ongoing search to capture and render something vital. Form is dictated by feeling. We had a great deal of back and forth—he would send me sketches and prototypes and ideas. I would respond with my thoughts and everything evolved in that way over time. Jerome is inspired and nourished by every step of the process, which is contagious.”Courtesy of Jacques Marie Mage
In the years since he portrayed the prodigal failson Kendall Roy on the hit HBO series Succession, the actor Jeremy Strong has let his personal sartorial proclivities become central to his own dramaturgical lore. His fans are aware of his appreciation for intuition-based dressing, bucket-hat sprezzatura, and the “monastic chic” qualities of the color brown.
Those fans may also be familiar with the actor’s affinity for Jacques Marie Mage, the luxury eyewear label founded by Jerome Mage, a French expat who set up shop in Los Angeles in 2015, and favored by style-minded Hollywood men like Jeff Goldblum, Paul Mescal, and Kit Connor. For Succession’s final season, Strong reached out to Mage to create a custom pair of Ripley shades for Kendall, plus an extra identical pair for himself—both inscribed with the initials KLR, for Kendall Logan Roy. (As Strong, who was involved in his character’s costuming throughout the series, told GQ last year, “I do know where one ends and the other begins.”)
Today, Strong and Mage—kindred in their philosophical approach to fashion—are launching an official limited-edited collaboration: the Duende by J.S. frames, which the actor co-designed. The aviator shades, crafted from Japan-made acetate, feature the brand’s signature visible wirecores engraved with “energetic, abstract artwork” by Strong himself. They come in four colors including a requisite brown (“tobacco”), though per the press release the actor’s color of choice here is a translucent lime called “poison green.” (Combining green and brown tones is another Strong signature, as evidenced by his mint-chocolate Prada ensemble at the 2023 Met Gala.)
“I have a ton of sunglasses—they are an indulgence and a pleasure and an essential part of my armor,” the actor told GQ via email this week. “Basically, I wanted to create what I felt were the perfect pair of sunglasses. To me, Jerome’s work is best in class and so the chance to do that with him—with the level of craftsmanship and vision at his disposal—was just a pure pleasure.”
In true Jeremy Strong fashion, the Duende frames are named after an impish demon found in Spanish folklore, a figure that Strong first encountered in the work of the 20th-century Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca; the mischievous duende, the actor said, “has been a vital companion in life since then.” In turn, each pair of Duende by J.S. shades will come with a limited-edition chapbook of García Lorca’s 1933 lecture on the folkloric figure, printed in the original Spanish with an accompanying English translation.
García Lorca’s theory of the duende, Strong said, mirrors the actor’s well-documented razor’s-edge approach to his craft. “His idea of the ‘point of danger’—that boundary line where you must give up your volition and surrender to the unconscious—is the guiding and essential principle in what I do,” Strong said. “Joyce Carol Oates may as well have been writing about Duende when she wrote, in her [1987] essay ‘On Boxing’: ‘Even as he disrobes himself ceremonially in the ring the great boxer must disrobe himself of both reason and instinct’s caution as he prepares to fight.’ Duende is, to me, the most central and determinative aspect of any creative work.”
Per Strong, partnering with Mage was an extension of this creative credo. Describing their collaborative design process, Strong said Mage would “send me photos of the creation of the wirecore, of newly minted acetate from his atelier in Japan, of cutting recently unearthed turquoise in New Mexico with his Acoma Pueblo artist.” They stayed close throughout the process.
“Collaborating with Jerome is as much about content as it is about form,” the actor said. “The design is dictated by shared instincts, a shared quest for a kind of aesthetic perfection and an ongoing search to capture and render something vital. Form is dictated by feeling. We had a great deal of back and forth—he would send me sketches and prototypes and ideas. I would respond with my thoughts and everything evolved in that way over time. Jerome is inspired and nourished by every step of the process, which is contagious.”
