Meet the made-in-PEI brand that’s making waves in high-fashion eyewear | Canada Voices

On Prince Edward Island’s picturesque south coast, in the rural town of Guernsey Cove, Sydney and Chris Seggie are dreaming up what will become some of the next runway season’s most talked about eyewear. The silhouettes range from double-edged cat-eyes to flecked fluorescent wayfarers that are made from recycled acetate. The Seggies’ brand, Fellow Earthlings, is behind signature styles produced for indie brands including Luar, Anna Sui and Adele Mildred, and worn by celebrities such as Solange, Doja Cat and Blake Lively. But their greatest gift to the eyewear world might be a sustainable ethos that doesn’t skimp on style.

Before starting Fellow Earthlings, the Seggies worked as brand managers for an eyewear manufacturer in Hong Kong, where they had a fated meeting with Sui, who encouraged them to start an eyewear brand of their own. The married couple, who now has four children, returned to Sydney’s birthplace, P.E.I, where there is a legacy of manufacturing frames. In the 1980s, a factory that supplied the likes of Ralph Lauren and Ray-Ban employed hundreds of artisans in Charlottetown. Years after the factory shuttered, the Seggies enlisted the help of one of its former production managers to train them in the island’s lost art.

“At first we didn’t even think we’d be able to do it ourselves, but we buckled down and our mentor, John, made it possible for us to really learn the craft,” Sydney says. In 2015, the Seggies began making shades for Sui and other designers who wanted small batches of ultra-creative styles they could show alongside their runway collections (the company the Seggies had previously worked with was, like many large manufacturers, unable to turn around small batches on short timelines). A few years later, they began releasing their own styles.

While building their business, the duo came face to face with how wasteful eyewear creation can be – over 80 per cent of each acetate sheet is discarded after frames are cut in typical production. “We were producing so much waste, and it was so frustrating to us, especially living here and being so conscious of how beautiful our surroundings are,” Sydney says. So, the couple began “hoarding scraps,” compiling individual colour libraries and weights (each part of the frame is a different weight – the thickest being around the eyes and the thinnest being on the arm around the temples) that could later be combined with heat and pressure to make sheets of new acetate for future pieces.

The new material became even more beautiful and intricate than the original, with inflections and shimmers that give the appearance of natural gemstones and the ability to swirl elements into a kaleidoscope of hues. The weight changed too. Fellow Earthlings produces 10-millimetre-thick frames, almost double the commercial average. “Everybody wants to do something more sustainable, but you don’t want to compromise because of that. I think for it to truly be a more sustainable option, you have to be offering someone something more beautiful and more exciting,” Sydney says.

Luar designer Raul Lopez is one of Fellow Earthlings’ most frequent collaborators. Together, they’ve created the brand’s popular “double eyewear.” The style features two pairs of layered sunglasses and was originally shown on the New York brand’s Fall 2023 runway (and worn in the front row by Madonna). Because of its smaller operation, Fellow Earthlings can produce these runway styles in a few months, prototypes that become the basis for commercial production.

As the Seggies gear up for Fall 2025 fashion month, which starts in New York on Feb. 6, they’re also charting new territory with a custom frame for the buzzy Cayman Islands hotel, Palm Heights, and large-scale home decor pieces including lamps and mirrors that resemble palm trees and tropical flowers. “I’m excited to display our acetate and a whole new category because, we’d make these pieces and we’d be like, ‘wow, this is so pretty,’ and then, when we cut it into frames, there would be very little left,” Sydney says. “We’re diverting even more waste.”