Real luxury

The niche fragranze brand MiN New York enters the world of eyewear. WMIDO has met its founder: Chad Murawczyk.Could you tell to our readers your story?I would start by stating first and foremost I embody the value system of a Cuban immigrant and a public school teacher. I wasn't born into luxury, but became a student of the luxury market from a very early age. I found the codes and rules fascinating and to this day feel challenged and love to rise to the opportunity to produce "great work" in any category. There are no short cuts to doing great work.My career path started in the beauty industry where I worked for a number of manufacturers, learning and studying every aspect of the manufacturing process, distribution, brand building, product development and design. It has been my life long pursuit. When I was 27 I decided to start my own company and moved into to my parents basement. And that is where I began pursuing my vision of creating something new, authentic and real that would hopefully stand the test of time. This is the reason for my company name - MiN - it is short for the New York minute.In 2009 I opened the flagship location in Soho New York City and spent a number of years listening and learning about the fragrance market. I launched Scent Stories in 2014 first only at our flagship and then, in 2015, I took Scent Stories globally. In 2016 I decided to take on a new category and apply the MiN value system to a tangible wearable luxury object. While I love fragrances, it is sometimes possible for people miss the details and nuances with invisible scent constructions. The opportunity to continue explaining our vision for each Scent Story from an olfactive standpoint to a visual standpoint is an evolutionary step for us.What makes MiN unique and what is the concept behind the brand?MiN New York is a sensory atelier that uses the senses as vehicles to surface authentic experiences. We believe in the art of craft as magic, design without compromise, and that a better product created with deliberate intention will enrich one’s life.Why did you decide to launch your eyewear collection?MiN was always a vision of a value system and philosophy in how and what is produced over a specific product category. I applied this value system to everything in my life and my most widely appreciated body of work thus far has been the Scent Stories fragrances. This is, of course, very exciting to have an audience appreciating the result of the creative process.However, I never set out to create a "fragrance brand". I set out to create a luxury lifestyle brand where our company name actually stood for a value system and philosophy to both our consumers as well as our commercial market partners.I became interested in eyewear in particular when I was very young when, by happenstance, I found a pair of Carrera sunglasses partially buried in the snow on an empty ski slope.I was perhaps 10 and I wore them continuously. Now, well into my career and after having largely completed the creative and development efforts in luxury fragrance, I wanted to find a new avenue to apply the MiN philosophy and value system. The opportunity to have such a deeply talented and dedicated team with Monica Albanese, J. Matthew Riva, and industry legends Paolo Seminara and José Pellicer made the vision become the viable project that it is today. Without each of my team members, this idea would remain solely in my head rather than entering the luxury eyewear market. Which is the connection of eyewear with your fragrances?As the first ever convergence of niche fragrance with luxury eyewear, MiN New York utilized its Scent Stories fragrances as the DNA for the creation of corresponding sunglass and optical frames.Behind every frame is a unique story that methodically informed each decision during the design process, to successfully translate olfactory art into a physical object. Each Scent Story was created to shed light on the human experience; and now, through the personal lenses we have created, we reveal to ourselves what was previously unknown.What about the eyewear distribution?Our plan is to be highly controlled in the exact same manner as our Scent Stories fragrance collection. The luxury market has very specific rules. I believe that discerning consumers, no different than highly esteemed retail partners, require the support and protection from the masses. It is not complicated to produce a luxury product, make it widely available, and generate fast revenue for a short period of time. However, this will come at the expense of our loyal consumers and the retail and commercial partners over the long term. My vision from the very start in 1999 was to build a true luxury brand from scratch that would stand the test of time. So our plan is to roll out very carefully, selectively and step by step.We will not expand at the cost of the people that are supporting us and investing with us along the way and we are looking for partnerships only with those sharing our long term vision.