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If you don't like the name, loosen up, says Happy To Sit On Your Face Sunglasses founder Leigh Pickering. She spoke to Kees Chalmers about her love for fashion, the inception of the name and being yourself.
Ten years ago, Leigh Pickering started selling her signature sunglasses from a stall at the Lyttelton Market under a name that instantly caught the attention of passers-by.
Her label, Happy To Sit On Your Face Sunglasses, has since grown into an international brand, with stockists across New Zealand, Australia and the United States.
A pair from her range has even been spotted on the head of English pop star Harry Styles’ mother, Anne Twist, who shared them with her 2.4 million Instagram followers in 2022.
For Pickering, 55, the business was born during one of the most difficult periods of her life.
She stopped working after her father, Ross, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and spent much of her time with him on the Ladbrooks farm where she grew up.
He battled the disease for two years before dying in 2016.
“Watching dad decline, you’d go out and the world would seem so surreal and really bizarre. That was the whole thing with Happy To Sit On Your Face, to try and have a bit of fun and a bit of a piss take,” she said.
“Life’s hard and I just wanted to make people smile and be happy.”
Pickering had spent 30 years in the fashion industry before launching her own business, mostly working in sales for brands including Ray-Ban and Christian Dior. She said the business name was also inspired by wanting people to feel comfortable wearing her sunglasses.
“They should be happy to sit on your face, when you’re wearing glasses, you’ve got to be comfortable.”
Despite running the business full-time, she has also worked as a bartender at Wunderbar for the past seven years.
Pickering had a complicated relationship with glasses growing up. As the only child who wore them at Ladbrooks School, she often felt like an outsider.
“I hated wearing them.
As a teenager she began experimenting with different styles and wanted to own the coolest frames. Her mother, Valerie, was an optometrist, and Pickering loved admiring the different designs.
Her passion for fashion began as a young girl, visiting Ballantynes with her grandmother, Patsey Austin, and watching Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
She still remembers her nana telling her: “Put on something every day that makes you feel good.”
“That’s what clothing’s about for me,” she said.
Pickering believes the provocative name has played a big part in the brand’s success, but said it has only worked because the product has continued to improve.
“You also have to keep making your product better and making a point of difference. You can’t have a great name and a s**t product,” she said.
Her car, emblazoned with the business name across both doors, regularly turns heads and draws laughs from people who see it.
Most recently it featured on a Lyttelton community social media page, attracting more than 100 comments, with most people appreciating the humour.
“It’s funny the reaction I’ve gotten,” she said.
Not everyone has found the name amusing, however, including the New Zealand Companies Office.
After finding success selling sunglasses at markets throughout the South Island, Pickering decided to take the business online.
When she submitted the paperwork to register the business in 2019, the Companies Office replied that it considered the name offensive.
Pickering disagreed, arguing that while the phrase could be offensive in some contexts, it was not when referring to sunglasses.
She believed the Companies Office should have taken the nature of her business into account.
“Even though my business name was provocative, it just annoyed me that whole judgmental thing, that whole PC thing.”
The Companies Office told her it would accept the name if she added “sunglasses” to the end.
She continued fighting the decision, even contacting Fair Go, which featured her battle in an episode.
It made no difference and she eventually conceded, adding the word to the business name.
“It really annoyed me, but it’s a business, some things you can’t take personally, you’ve just got to carry on,” she said.
She added people who object to the name need to “loosen the f**k up”.
When she first launched the business, Pickering imported sunglasses from China, selecting designs she felt were interesting and unique.
In 2021, she decided the range no longer reflected her personality and began designing the sunglasses herself. Investing in new designs and waiting months for production was a major step, but one she was determined to make work.
Her sunglasses are made from bio-acetate, a sustainable plant-based material.
She mainly designs them for older women, whose “don’t give a f**k” attitude is suited for her brightly coloured and uniquely shaped glasses.
Learning to embrace what makes her designs different has been one of the biggest lessons of running the business.
Pickering credits fashion designer Dame Trelise Cooper as an important mentor. At a time when she was trying to make her designs appeal to everyone, Cooper encouraged her to stay true to her own style.
“Not everybody’s going to like your look, you’re not trying to cater to everybody. You’ve got to be true to yourself, what you like and capture that bit of the market,” she said.
The business really began to take off in 2022, attracting stockists across New Zealand and overseas. It has continued to grow, with online sales over the past year overtaking retail sales.