Amidst the bustle of Hong Kong Arts Month, we arrived at The Commune of K11 Artus at sundown to meet Peter Yee, the former Vice President of Design at Oakley from 1993 to 2018. Yee is credited for establishing the brand’s timeless legacy in performance eyewear with more than 110 patented designs including the Oakley Eye Jacket, Zero, and OVERTHETOP sunglasses.
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Having brought a suitcase of carefully labeled archive pieces for his debut solo exhibition, we asked Yee to pick designs instrumental to the Oakley story. For our conversation, Yee chose the Time Bomb II, Eye Jacket, and the X-Metal Romeo which will be the focus of this editorial.
The X-Metal Romeo was the world’s first-ever 3-D sculpted, hypoallergenic, all-metal frame and at the time, the strongest sunglasses ever made by a long shot. Built to withstand the weight of a car, the Oakley team reportedly drove over one with a tank to test its durability.
As the legend goes, it took 27 different machines, 425,000 watts of electricity at 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, and 75 pairs of hands to manufacture the X-Metal Romeo. The individually-numbered frames marked a breakthrough in structural physics, built using top-secret metallurgical processes involving an undisclosed bunker in Nevada.
Cementing its place in history, the USD$250 sunglasses (now nowhere to be found for under 5x its original price) were promoted by a roster of sports celebrities including Olympic medalists, NBA players, MLB players, and champions from extreme sports such as surfing and snowboarding. In film, they have also been popularised in blockbusters such as Mission Impossible II. In an age where fashion styles come and go like the wind, the Oakley silhouettes have stood the test of time, admired by the masses and adored by a growing cult of enthusiasts.
Below, we dive into how the frames were conceived from the perspective of the designer and learn more about where Yee is headed following his departure from Oakley.
Please tell us about the X-Metal Romeo.
This is the first design of the X-metal collection. This project was happening in the back room behind closed doors over the years. The concept was from the founder. He wanted to create something that had never been done before. There were many of us designers working on it. I was fortunate enough to be the one to define the final design of the collection and figure out the language and how this works.
It’s cast titanium and there are all these segmented pieces with connections so that things would flex as they could and should with compliant flex couplers. This thing is so stout. This will outlast all of us. When we are all passed away and our bones turn to dust, this thing will still exist.
It’s a testament to Oakley’s commitment at that time to design and create something truly special that didn’t exist before. If we look back in 20/20 hindsight at how the X-metal collection has been revered, collected, and coveted, I think it did what it was intended to do.
It became the flagship of the brand. It represented Oakley’s differentiated thinking and approach to creating things. I’m really proud that I got to work on this with amazing people and an amazing team.
Oakley’s always been a standout brand, but it seems like there is now a new generation that has embraced it for the nostalgia that they might not have been part of. There’s a new wave of people hunting for the stuff you created. How does that make you feel?
I don’t know that I could be any more proud. I feel so honored that people appreciate the work I did such a long time ago, as well as maybe my current work. As we know, fashion in general is very cyclical. Things that happened before come back, but I don’t think that everything is cyclical. I think what happens is the designs that were crafted well in its time, those do come back. If we use that definition, it may mean that the things I’ve designed were designed and crafted well.
If I did my job correctly and used the correct fundamentals of design, then the attraction to it should still hold firm. However, it ebbs and flows too. Self-servingly, I believe that it is the good designs that come back and are in favor. If in our fashion culture today, people are regaining or finding these designs that I’ve done, it’s extremely flattering and maybe it’s tied to my design approach.
It’s like if you had somebody like a singer or an artist and they have this amazing hit, but it’s a one-hit wonder, that’s it. But if I look at the designs I’ve worked on that are considered iconic or in favor or sought after, there’s way more than a handful. So it more likely has to speak to the approach to design and sensitivity that I use.
Having invested so much in Oakley over 25 years, what made you want to move on?
I joined Oakley in January 1993 and left the beginning of 2018. So January 2018 was two anniversaries. I turned 50 and I hit my 25th year with the brand. So being Asian and liking numbers, half of your life working for the brand seems like a pretty good point in time to maybe move on.
I still see people [from Oakley] from time to time. I have dear friends who work there doing phenomenal work but things evolve. I want to continue to evolve myself as well.
What led you to want to create your own brand?
There’s a quote I saw that goes “success is your responsibility.” That hit me because I know how to do a lot of stuff at a very high level and it made me realise that I’ve been coasting. It made me realise that I’m still at the age where I’ve got a lot of energy and I have the intellect and creativity to do it. If I were to die today, it would be all the cool Oakley stuff but what if I don’t die today, and when I die later, the Oakley stuff is just the first half of the book? How interesting could the second half be?
I owe it to my family and fans to do more stuff. Wouldn’t it be great to create a brand that they’d want to work at one day? Maybe I could create a brand that could leave a legacy even when I’m gone — that fulfills people’s needs in some way and that isn’t copies of something else. That would be cool to leave that legacy. To build a brand on my beliefs.
Historically all the designs I’ve done that are popular have been copied so likely there won’t be anything to show until I’m ready to show. I like to do hard things. Everything that I do won’t be easy so when it’s not easy it’s hard to tell how long that will take.
What is your approach with your creative agency PYD Inc.?
I don’t take all the clients that come to me because I have to like them. It’s important to work with people I like to work with because when I’m working on your project, I’m not working for a client, I’m working for my friend and I want to make the best things for my friends and there’s nothing I won’t do for my friend.
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How did the brand name “XYE” (pronounced ex-yee) come about?
Back in the day, I played a good amount of video games on the Xbox and then later on Xbox 360. My gamertag was X-Toy from a sports car in NSX. So that’s my regular life. In my professional life, a lot of my designs use adjectives with the letter “X” in them as my designs are pretty extreme. I believe in design excellence. Excitement. A myriad of words that represent it [X]. Romeo is the first design of the X-Metal collection. So in my mind, X represents kind of the crossroad between art, science, function, creativity, and the laws of physics.
To this day, I get texts from my friends. There is a “Hey, Peter, it’s X.” So X is my nickname and I call them in return by their gamertag. Hey, Notorious. Hey, Deluxe, etc. That’s just how we roll. So that’s what it stands for. It’s literally my nickname and my last name. “YEE” when I first wrote it, had the long vowel sound symbol, the line. That’s the phonetic spelling of my last name but I just took the line off. So “XYE” is my name in code because the idea is that the brand is me. It’s what I believe in terms of design and what I want to bring to the world.
How would you describe your design language and are there any peers or contemporaries that you take inspiration from?
That’s a great question. I think one of my superpowers in terms of how I design is my ignorance. I say that because I approach things with my ignorance, I don’t know what’s possible but that also means I don’t know what’s impossible. I’ll try things and my ignorance also extends to what other people are doing.
I don’t know what other people are doing. It has nothing to do with me and what I’m doing. That’s not to say there aren’t great examples of artists and designers that do good work. That’s not the case. It’s just that — let’s say in this case when I approach eyewear, the last thing I’m looking at for inspiration or ideas is other eyewear.
That doesn’t mean I’m ignorant of what exists, but when I look at other things, I use them more as examples of what not to do because if it’s already done, I don’t need to do it. I’m not a copy machine. When I’m designing, my approach is to bring something unique and beautiful to the world.
Stay tuned for two more episodes in which Peter Yee speaks about the Time Bomb II and Eye Jacket.
Interviewer/Producer: Ambrose Leung
Video: Ryan Putranto
Editor: Aaron Chow
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Aaron Chow
Editor
Aaron is an editor currently based in Hong Kong focused on music, fashion, F&B, tech, art, and culture.
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