CdM Exclusive: Toni Ko founder of NYX and Perverse sunglasses

Photo via Instagram @tonikoko

"You don’t have to have just one pair of sunglasses you could have two, three, four, five, six options. You could try a cat-eye, you could have an aviator. You could have fun and wear pink sunglasses or yellow sunglasses or purple ones.”- Toni Ko Founder of Perverse Sunglasses

Toni Ko, founder of NYX make-up and now Perverse sunglasses, is an expert in fashion entrepreneurism and, on Saturday she attended the Simply event in LA to share some of her tips and insider knowledge on the panel titled “Starting a business from the ground up”. Her company, Perverse sunglasses exhibited at the event as well and, also recently opened their 5^th store in the Santa Anita Westfield Mall. I spoke to Toni about her inspiration for founding NYX and how it has helped her in developing her latest project Perverse.

Her love of make-up is what first led to her idea for NYX and she started by telling me about the turning point that finally pushed her to start the company saying, “I was 26 in 1999 and I was that girl on a budget and I loved the product that was in department stores but I couldn’t afford it. So, I used to go to drug stores to find my products but, back in 1999 the products were really poor quality in drug stores so my family had been in the beauty business for a while and I knew a couple of the suppliers. And one day, I just said I’m going to start my own cosmetics line that doesn’t break your wallet but still has amazing quality.”

According to Toni, as the industry changed she noticed her target customer had changed as well and the quality and variety of products that were available at lower price points had increased dramatically by the time she sold the company in 2014.

She found her next project in a similar style saying, “It’s almost like the same business concept as my previous industry cosmetics, just in a different industry.”

After noticing a missing element in the Sunglass industry, she founded Perverse which she affectionately calls her “newest baby” telling me, “I think it is an industry that is heavily dominated by just a few companies and I think there could be more variety of companies in the business that could deliver more variety of styles at a budget price point.”

And variety is one of her main focuses for the designs for Perverse. She told me, “I love colors, I love the whole matchy-matchy theme where you can match your sunglasses to your lipstick color. You could wear like a bright yellow dress—and this happened because I was looking for yellow sunglasses. I really wanted to find a yellow sunglass that fit my face and I couldn’t find any because every sunglass you see out there is just black brown, black brown. So, I’m all about sunglasses with color.”

The founder, who like many is tired of the same safe and boring styles available now, is all about taking risks and she wants to bring that to her customers as well giving them more options to try out without committing tons of money to one trend. 

She told me, “I want to be the sunglass business for the fashion accessories category. I want fast turnover, fast fashion sunglasses, taking sunglasses and really making it a fashion accessory category. You don’t have to have just one pair of sunglasses you could have two three four five six options. You could try a cat-eye, you could have an aviator. You could have fun and wear pink sunglasses or yellow sunglasses or purple ones.”

And on Saturday, the Perverse booth was full of fun and colorful styles. The Perverse outlook on eyewear will bring a new perspective to the industry and the fun bold styles already have customers getting in on the good times.