STYLE: Style.Pages Group Effort By Deirdre Carroll Monday, March 2, 2015 12:00 AM Click here to download a poster of Group Effort. WHO: All of Target’s designer capsule collections, cosmetic company MAC’s celebrity collaborations, Adidas by Stella McCartney, Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith, and the Grammy award winning duo Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett. WHAT: High profile collaborations are nothing new in music or fashion and often the entities involved make total sense as partners, even if the synergy isn’t obvious at first. Well, eyewear has gotten on board with this idea of creative collaborations and several brands have teamed up with those outside the usual sport team/celebrity/fashion brand suspects to introduce frames that raise both their profiles. WEAR: (Clockwise, top left) Portland-based Shwood Eyewear has a few interesting collaborations—Widmer Brothers Brewing and Louisville Slugger, among them—but one of their most popular is their partnership with Pendleton Woolen Mills, known for their quality patterned woolen blankets; shown here, the Canby in Pendleton’s Rancho Arroyo pattern on the interior and microfiber pouch. Made-in-Italy eyewear brand, Blackfin, sought out another quintessential Italian brand for partnership, Arrigo Cipriani, owner of the iconic Harry’s Bar in Venice, as well as some of New York’s famous Italian restaurants, partnered for the limited edition Blackfin with Arrigo Cipriani collection. The numbered optical and sunglass frames, here the Julie sunstyle (top) and Sophie (bottom), are carried in all of Cipriani’s restaurants. To mark its 100 birthday, Moscot partnered with Smart (a division of Daimler Chrysler AG), for the Lemtosh Smart, the brand’s perennial favorite frame in their iconic colors and the Moscot Smart Drive Package, a set of three clip-on sun lens options. Though available for sale separately, the frame and Drive Package also come standard in all of the 100 Smart Fortwo Moscot Edition Cabriolet cars, available only while supplies last. WHY: Co-marketing, co-branding, co-llaborations; different names, similar concepts. Essentially, it means that two companies have combined their products, identifiable branding, and ultimately their customer bases, to create an even more valuable product. One product, two companies doing the work to promote it among their fans. Sounds like a no-brainer if you ask Style.Pages. dcarroll@jobson.com