Fifty years after Horses, Patti Smith is still rewriting the rules. The punk poet, who once turned downtown New York into her stage, has teamed up with luxury eyewear label Jacques Marie Mage for a collaboration.

Back in 1975, Horses changed everything. But Patti&rsquo;s story started a decade earlier, when a restless kid from New Jersey headed to New York chasing the American dream - and found Robert Mapplethorpe instead. With him came devotion to writing and music, nights reading poetry over Lenny Kaye&rsquo;s guitar and an evolution from punk poet to rock icon. She called it &ldquo;Rock &rsquo;n&rsquo; Rimbaud&rdquo;: the rawness of the street meeting the grace of verse.
Half a century later, that same spirit drives her latest project - a capsule collection with Jacques Marie Mage founder J&eacute;r&ocirc;me Mage. &ldquo;It felt like writing a song with someone,&rdquo; Patti says. &ldquo;Only this time, it was about our shared sense of vision.&rdquo; She laughs, recalling the start of their partnership: &ldquo;I found an old pair of my favourite glasses and realized they were Jacques Marie Mage. I&rsquo;d been wearing them for years without knowing.&rdquo;

The collection celebrates contrast - French refinement with an American edge. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always loved sunglasses,&rdquo; Patti adds. &ldquo;They make you look cool, but they also protect you. They let you disappear a little. Even at a funeral, they hide your tears. To me, that symbolism is beautiful.&rdquo;
Shot by Ethan James Green, the campaign centers on JMM&rsquo;s signature Dealan frame, famously inspired by Bob Dylan&rsquo;s 1965 silhouette - one Patti often wore in her Horses era. This special edition features bloodstone inlays, silver-engraved lyrics from her book Land and three colorways - Cabaret Vert, Rayon Violet, and Mauvais Sang - all nods to Rimbaud. Each pair comes in a collector&rsquo;s box with a leather case, booklet, T-shirt, and cleaning cloth printed with an original Patti Smith photograph, topped with a Mapplethorpe portrait on the lid.
&ldquo;The vision,&rdquo; Patti says, &ldquo;is the ability to see what others don&rsquo;t - to imagine a world that doesn&rsquo;t exist yet.&rdquo; Fifty years after Horses, she still does exactly that.

Smith and Jacques Marie Mage’s Rock-Poetic Collection

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