Avant-Garde Eyewear Lovers: Gentle Monster's Newest Road Trip-Worthy Cali Shop Is Home to a Grandma Robot

If your eyewear shopping experience absolutely must be as 'grammable as your statement specs, then look no further than Gentle Monster. The South Korean brand has soft-opened its second California store at Westfield Valley Fair in San Jose, and the road trip-worthy space will have you doing a double-take the second you step inside.

Enter the 4,300-square-foot boutique and you'll be greeted with the surrealist scene of an elderly woman and "her childhood friend, the donkey." Spatial designer Wonho Moon's envisioned the store as a futuristic world where technology can restore the memories of the shop's resident android granny, and visitors can witness her experience as she reconnects with her burro pal, all while shopping Gentle Monster's latest spring/summer 2021 collection of avant-garde eyewear.

On shelves, expect to find the label's unisex range of experimental optical and sun frames ($249 to $430), including the very Matrix-like Hyper 01 glasses, the oversized Diana 02 aviators, the Agail G7 cat-eye, and many other other head-turning lenses.

In a release, Moon explains that the kinetic immersive installation was designed "to illustrate a dream state in which to convey how we interpret the memory restoration process, and more importantly, what would the reaction and emotion be when you wake up from a dream and see something physically appear from your dreams in front of your eyes. For the old lady, we see her waking up to see her childhood friend, the donkey. When designing her we focused on trying to create that emotion through an expression she gives once she awakens."

The brand says that the exhibit-like space took half a year to create with the help of installation artists, architects, robotics engineers and designers, and media and textile artists.

"Modern bricks-and-mortar retail has evolved and changed significantly over the last several years, but now during a pandemic when nothing is 'normal,' we felt compelled to pursue our vision for a future-facing retail experience," David Kim, director of customer experience, says in a release.

 Kim adds: "I hope that our new flagship allows for people to step inside the world and mind of Gentle Monster, and be able to forget their worries, even for a moment, and feel inspired, this was always the goal for Gentle Monster, and will always be the motivating factor for all of us."

The NorCal outpost marks Gentle Monster's third U.S. location; it made its West Coast debut in 2017 with its DTLA flagship and has a storefront in New York. It recently debuted another store in Seoul.

Scroll through the gallery above for another peek inside the dream-like space, and see below for location and hours.

Gentle Monster at Westfield Valley Fair, 2855 Stevens Creek Blvd. #1651, Santa Clara, 95050; Sunday to Thursday from 11 am. to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; (213) 935-8114