by Janee Bolden
August 15, 2025
Jeneé Naylor launched her eyewear model 12PM Studios in July.
When Jeneé Naylor launched her eyewear model 12PM Studios in July, the model rapidly grew to become one of many hottest on the luxurious equipment market. Inside two weeks, the model had pulled in $400,000 in gross sales, with three kinds utterly bought out nearly immediately. Her first-year projection? A cool $2 million. What’s maybe most spectacular is that Naylor was capable of accomplish all of it with out paid advertisements or PR blitzes, however she did have the belief and loyalty of a neighborhood she’s cultivated for greater than a decade.
For Naylor, recognized for her high-low luxe fashion (her authentic IG deal with was @highlowluxxe) and deeply engaged social media following (527,000 robust), launching her personal eyewear line was nearly a pure calling.
“Eyewear was type of nearly too apparent,” she tells me. “I’ve all the time leaned closely into sun shades. My neighborhood was already coming to me for suggestions and evaluations. And I began to note the luxurious eyewear panorama was shifting. Costs had been creeping into the $500, $700, even $1,000 vary, and I assumed, it doesn’t should be this manner.”
At 12PM, It’s At all times the Good Time
The inspiration behind 12PM Studios is as intentional as its designs. “At 12 p.m., the world feels in good stability,” reads the model’s mission assertion. “The solar is at its peak, casting a light-weight that’s neither harsh nor fading—it’s regular, clear, and intentional.”
Constructed on the assumption that true luxurious isn’t about extra or exclusivity, 12PM Studios is about considerate design and that means in each element. Beginning with eyewear, the life-style model is designed to empower, encourage, and elevate on a regular basis moments. Each body blends timeless high quality with trendy sophistication to create items that really feel private, attainable, and deeply linked to the wearer.
Frames vary from $125 to $145—priced to really feel attainable however packaged to ship a high-end expertise. “I would like you to really feel valued the second you obtain your order,” Naylor says. “From the field, to the case, to the glasses themselves, it ought to really feel such as you bought greater than your cash’s value.”
Even the names of the frames are private. Types like NYC, London, and Milan pay homage to the cities that formed her artistic imaginative and prescient. “Journey is after I’ve discovered my fashion,” she says. “The cities are inspiration, however they’ve additionally change into a solution to interact the neighborhood—folks love suggesting new ones.”
From Goal to the Runway
Earlier than the entrance row seats at Style Week and model collaborations, Naylor was operating retail flooring. She spent eight years as a retailer director at Goal, preceded by administration roles at Aldo and a top-selling stint at Nordstrom. That retail basis formed her as a founder.
“I thrive off having a plan and executing it,” she says. “I all the time say, ‘I don’t have time to waste.’ That comes with ensuring I’ve the suitable folks round me, the suitable assets, I do my due diligence, then having a plan and standing on the enterprise of that plan. I type of constructed that platform of belief.”
The Energy of Partnership
A part of that success comes from the individual she shares each her life and enterprise with—her husband, Joshua Prieto. Already her longtime photographer and CFO of her creator enterprise, Prieto grew to become a pure collaborator for 12PM Studios.
“It was vital to me that the model be unisex,” Naylor says. “Josh brings a special perspective—every thing from the packaging to the case design, he can inform me the way it lands for a person. We’ve labored out the kinks of collaborating through the years, so now it’s only a pure alignment. He’s equally excited concerning the model, equally fashionable, and simply as invested in making it a hit.”
When requested who she’d most like to see in her frames, Naylor lights up. “Solange, for positive. She embodies that easy confidence and on a regular basis luxurious our model is all about,” she says. On the boys’s facet, she names Colman Domingo as an ideal match for the model’s timeless but relaxed vitality. And if she might put a pair on an icon from the previous? “Aaliyah—she was my final cool lady inspiration.”
Black Enterprise, Daring Imaginative and prescient
Launching throughout Nationwide Black Enterprise Month carries particular weight for Naylor. “I really feel like I’ve joined this tremendous particular, unique membership,” she says. “Black founders are the sauce, the magic, the inspiration. We’re the temper. We form the tradition.”
Her recommendation for supporting Black-owned luxurious manufacturers goes past purchasing: “Share. Inform folks about your expertise. When somebody who isn’t a creator goes out of their solution to publish as a result of they’re so impressed—that’s the true story.”
The model will debut a brand new fashion throughout New York Style Week in September, celebrated with an intimate dinner. However proper now, Naylor is savoring one other full-circle second—promoting her frames at Nordstrom, the identical retailer the place she as soon as labored.
“I can’t imagine that is my life,” she says. “You possibly can actually do something, as a result of I simply hold pondering of stuff—and now we’re right here.”
Catch 12PM Studios This Weekend At Their NYC Pop-Up:
When: Friday, Aug. 15–Sunday, Aug. 17
• Friday & Saturday: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
• Sunday: 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
The place: Nordstrom NYC Flagship, 225 West 57th Avenue, New York, NY
Why: Have a good time Nationwide Black Enterprise Month, meet Jeneé Naylor, and store the sold-out kinds in individual.
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