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IT STARTED WITH DRINKS In 2017, two friends were enjoying some down time at the Paloma Beach Club in the South of France, when their attention shied to a well-turned man whose presence filled the room. Intrigued, the duo approached the man behind a classic pair of sunglasses to learn his story. And learn it they did, striking up a conversation that lasted well into several rounds of drinks and ended with the birth of a new company named for this man from Monaco, Christopher Cloos. While Cloos himself merely lent his name to the enterprise, his style and persona helped shape the brand into the global success it is today. e idea to manufacture and sell high-quality sunglasses had already been in the works for the founders, but according to Julius August Langkilde Høedt, CEO and co-founder, the chance meeting was just the catalyst needed to get the company off the ground. "We originally had the glasses in just one store north of Copenhagen and had 100 followers, but the frames really started to sell. I came aboard wanting to see what happened if we scaled it up," Julius says. He started traveling around Europe selling to retailers and in the first 90 days on the road, he landed about 20 accounts across France, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. Soon aer, Julius was moving to the United States for graduate school and vowed to take the company with him. He began with online sales and then started traveling from state to state and door to door, visiting 45 states and more than 10,000 optical stores. "In the early days, it was about getting the product out there and creating the brand. Along the way we came up with the goal to dress a million faces across the planet," he says. VUE ON | FASHION

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