Founded in 2013 by Stirling Barrett, a New Orleans native, Krewe was created with the “goal of creating something unexpected from a place no one would suspect.” Today, the eyewear brand serves as a testament to the cultural hub that is rooted in the community.
In conversation, Barrett told WWD he was inspired to create the company by New Orleans itself, describing it as a vibrant, diverse place.
“I saw that as an opportunity. The city does a really good job of celebrating culture through all of the things it’s famous for — food, music, Mardi Gras and tourism. I saw an opportunity to celebrate individual style and create community by starting a fashion brand from a place that no one would expect. It’s meant a lot of different things over the last 10 years but in many ways, we’ve lived up to that original goal we set out to achieve.”
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Barrett said when he thinks about celebrating 10 years of Krewe, it feels a bit surreal, mixed with heavy gratitude. “Ten years went by in the blink of an eye, no pun intended. Not to say it wasn’t challenging because it was, but you learn to roll with it. ‘The right thing will happen at the right time’ becomes the motto.”
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Named in reference to the New Orleans phrase meaning a group of people that “roll together in a Mardi Gras parade.” This Krewe, or company, Barrett told WWD, is “one where we accomplish great things by growing together and helping each other, all with the intent of making a difference in the world. We want to do this with respect for the place that we come from, New Orleans.”
Moreover, it’s an amazing group of people, Barrett said, that the company owes its success.
“We have had and have such amazing team members. People who love, care and steward this brand we are building — whether in our stores, fulfillment, remote or at our headquarters. Consumers have come to love us due to our authenticity. It’s why word of mouth continues to remain our strongest marketing channel.”
Like many brands at the beginning, Krewe started small. In fact, the brand’s first store was actually a cart that the team would travel with from festival to festival to sell frames. The second Krewe store, Barrett said, was the Krewe office and the third “was born from necessity, we needed a place to sell that wasn’t disrupting where we worked.”
While much has changed as the company continues to grow, Barrett said he doesn’t feel there is a huge difference. The intention for the company was always to create a destination that both celebrated the product and created spaces, giving people a reason to interact with the brand and spend time in a place without it being transactional. This idea came to life in the company’s original store with a version of a coffee bar in the back.
During the pandemic, Krewe built a fleet of “tiny houses” to launch in locations it wanted to test out. These tests were a necessity, Barrett said who shared the uncertainty many others were feeling around the future of retail. With these experimental retail spaces, the company learned to be flexible and meet people where they are.
“When you are a self-funded brand, you don’t have the opportunity to fail like when you are venture-backed, which in turn creates the necessity to understand your consumers and markets better. This Tiny Home strategy fits within our belief of the concentric circle growth model and building our Krewe in that way. The Tiny Home concept embodies a lot about who we are as a brand. When something isn’t working, we get to the root of why, and solve for it.”
With the mobile spaces, the brand was able to meet customers where they were while still holding true to its care for design and architecture. The mobile retail experiences were built so that consumers didn’t “feel mobile” when someone is in them. Nods to New Orleans architecture were used in addition to intentional natural light in the skylights.
Looking across all of Krewe’s spaces, Barrett said, the “new and the old spaces don’t feel that different to us from an inspiration standpoint. We’ve always had a vision of New Orleans and soon after New York being flagship markets for us, so that’s been amazing to see come to life through our Maison du Krewe projects.”
Maison du Krewe, the brand’s New York City flagship location, opened in late 2022 at 67 Gansevoort Street as a multipurpose creative and communal space for the brand and its guests. The inviting space is designed to merge the “bustling spirit of New York” with the “comfortable energy of the Northernmost Caribbean city.”
The space design was a shared project between Barrett and interior designer Olivia Erwin, who has collaborated on designs for Krewe’s New Orleans headquarters and other stores. The duo used the brand’s core tenant — experience in discovery — and worked to make consumers’ visits experimental and beautiful. Included in the space are a responsibly sourced wine living room with a lounge for guests and an open flame fireplace.
Krewe’s approach to retail, said Barrett, has always and continues to be to test, iterate, grow and create community through its spaces. “All that in DNA links back to the original store, or cart. How we are willing to invest and bet based on consumer demand has allowed us to do bigger and more audacious things. We’re really proud but more excited to see what is to come out of these new spaces.”
Barrett told WWD he has “no clue what the next 10 years will hold. There is still plenty of opportunity and market share within Optical and sun as well as growing the brand in the U.S. When you are an independent brand, focus is everything. I don’t see us losing focus on optical sun and those services within the next three to five years.”
It all comes down to people, he said, “we’ve always taken advantage of opportunities in certain areas when the right person comes along. Ultimately, it comes down to what our consumers want to see from us. We’re always down to try new things and build our community and partners. We wouldn’t be here today without the amazing people and community who have supported us along the way. We hope to keep doing this for another 10-plus years.”