About Us

 Meet 7th Monocle

Today we’d like to introduce you to Raven

Hi Raven, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My sister Rachel and I created 7th Monocle together. Growing up we were both into fashion, and oversized sunglasses became our signature look. Our mom kept us very business-oriented from a young age as well placing us in various entrepreneurship programs in and outside of school. After graduating college we knew in order to be successful we had to find a way or make one. So, we did just that and decided to create our own lane in the world of boutiques. Rachel was the brains behind the business and I came in as the creative. 7th Monocle was born and our niche was eyewear.

From there we became walking build boards wearing our own product in order to market. It was pretty genius because we were able to gain honest feedback without people knowing that it was something we were personally selling. Because we knew how to style them people would always stop us out in public saying oh those glasses are so cute, where did you get them? Instead of saying we sell them, we would just say oh I got them from this company called 7th Monocle you should check them out. Responding that way was great in receiving unbiased feedback, so that’s how we built clientele locally.

We were able to spread out across the U.S with the support from our college friends and family who lived in different states. Once one person purchased from the state they resided in, their family and friends would see them and make a purchase as well. That’s how we got to where we are today.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, it hasn’t been a smooth road but it’s definitely been fulfilling. Building a brand from scratch was not easy. Being an entrepreneur you run into different hiccups every day. We didn’t sit there and write out a full detailed business plan, it was more of a learn as you go.

Everything that we’ve done business-wise we had to learn on our own, legalities, outsourcing, product development, website building, logo making, curating photo shoots, and everything in between we did it all ourselves, and we continue to do it ourselves. We are just now getting to the point where we are ready to hire a team.

We’ve also faced the challenge of how personal do we get with our brand? We’ve always wanted our brand to stand for itself. We didn’t want people to buy or not buy based on who we were or who we were associates of. So, it was a challenge with letting our brand stand by itself with us being behind it vs being able to share our story as the girls behind the brand.

Consumers connect with the backstories of brands and whose behind them, they want to feel like they know you on a personal level. So picking and choosing what to share and what not to share has been a challenge.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are St. Louis’ premier dealer of luxury and sports eyewear. Our brand has no age limit, from children to senior citizens, the visually impaired to people with 20/20 vision, if you like fly eyewear, 7th Monocle is for you. We also customized eyewear. We’ve been inspired by brands such as Cazal and Cartier and aspire to be just as big one day.

Brand wise we are most proud of the experience we give our customers. You’re not just purchasing eyewear, you are receiving a luxury experience, from presentation to actual customer service. It’s very rare that we have an unsatisfied customer, we understand quality within products, delivery, and communication. We always go back to the principle of the customer is always right” because without your customers you don’t have a business and being heavy shoppers ourselves we know firsthand just how important a shopping experience is when purchasing.

The only thing that we suggest to readers regarding our brand is that if you purchase a pair for yourself you might as well purchase a pair for your aunt, sister, friend because they aren’t going to be able to keep their hands off of yours.

What makes you happy?
Our customers make us happy. Have you ever watched someone try on a pair of our eyewear? Their entire attitude instantly changes. The moment they take that glance in the mirror or flip that camera on their phone around to selfie mode their inner confidence beams through. Their entire demeanor changes, it’s like this lion mentality exudes.

So, it’s great to see that in this rough world we can bring people a moment of solitude, joy, and confidence to keep conquering the day simply by throwing on a pair of our eyewear.


Contact Info:

Image Credits
Alexis Blakemore and Raven Collins