Acclaimed New York City sunglasses designer puts roots down in Petersburg.
Three years ago, Merrilee Cohen lived in a midtown Manhattan loft and worked out of her showroom in the iconic Chelsea Hotel, home to rock’s bad boys, legendary writers, and Hollywood film directors. It’s also where Merrilee and her sister Rachel launched their business, Mercura NYC, in 1976. They gained a following as, according to celebrity fashion stylist Derek Warburton, “The Picassos of Sunglasses and Fashion.”
Mercura’s products have been featured in Vogue, Elle, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Cosmopolitan, and modeled by the likes of Billy Porter, Lady Gaga, Elton John, Madonna, Cher, Taylor Swift, DavidBowie, and Barbra Streisand. A 2020 New Yorker profile of Grammy winner Brittany Howard shows her with a pair of Mercura NYC sunglasses. “Brittany bought several pairs for her tour,” says Merrilee. “I loved the way they made her look strong.”
The sisters’ fascination with wearable art began in childhood, when their artistic parents taught them to repurpose miniature antique objects into necklaces and charms. After attending the Fashion Institute of Technology and several other design schools, Merrilee and Rachel created Mercura NYC to design and market jewelry, headdresses, and bustiers. But they were particularly drawn to the transformative power of eyewear. They use materials ranging from crystals to hemp, and pearls to macaroni, in their one-of-a-kind creations.
Merrilee’s journey to Virginia began when she and her husband, photographer Greg Kitchen, contemplated life after their daughter Claudia left for college. They searched the East Coast for a pastoral, arts-oriented environment. When they first saw the listing for their house in Petersburg, they were intrigued but suspicious. “It was beautiful, but the price was so reasonable,” says Merrilee. “There had to be something wrong. Was the area safe?” They discovered neighbors with remarkable backgrounds—inventors and artists—and a community as vibrant as any in NYC.
Today, Merrilee divides her time between New York and a Palladian villa on three wooded acres in Petersburg, where the landscape provides the perfect setting for exploring the design elements of her craft: the harmony between the natural and manmade world with elements derived from architecture and flowers, theater and poetry, and light and shadow. The Virginia landscape colors her new work. “There’s such a mix—from huge flowering magnolia trees to vultures, starry skies, millions of wildflowers, rainstorms and sunny days, so many images in my mind to draw from.” Instagram: @mercuranyc
This article originally appeared in the August 2021 issue.
