Development in eyewear manufacturing ability has afforded designers the opportunity to experiment with construction and material combinations like never before.
Trends at this year’s Silmo were not about colours or shapes, but forms. How many different materials could be combined, how much could be milled away and how much engineering can be included. Regular acetate frames looked a little bit old hat when compared to what some brands had on offer. It is fairly safe to assume, however, that some of this engineering and design will filter into the more cost-friendly segment of the eyewear market over the next couple of years.
Jacques Marie Mage’s acetate eyewear (pictured above) cannot be described as old hat. The Los Angeles-based designer has been working in eyewear for more than 20 years for various sports eyewear brands and has turned his knowledge of shapes into an avant-garde luxury frame collection.
With 10mm Japanese acetate plates, the silhouettes are bold. But the liberal milling and bevelling used gives them an aesthetic that defies their heft. On the Sheridan style, volume has been removed from the bottom of eye wires but left in place and sculpted below the temple lug.
Lool Eyewear is the result of three-year project undertaken by a multi-disciplinary Spanish design studio. A collective appreciation of eyewear design and the production infrastructure already in place, prompted the project which has resulted in three lines of sheet metal stainless steel frames with screw-less hinges, all made in-house at Lool’s Barcelona base.
Sheet metal and screw-less hinges may sound passé, but it is Lool’s approach to weight reduction and aesthetics that made it one the most exciting new lines at the event. All frames are engraved, either to form their shape, or to reduce weight. The futuristic Tectonic line has a regular sheet metal aesthetic from the outside, but on the inside, sections have been partially removed to reduce weight. The studio’s architectural experience allows them to plot all the points of tension around the frame and remove what is not necessary.
A Lool frame
This concept is taken further with the Grid series, which completely removes material that does not affect the strength of the frame and creates negative space within the frame.
A Grid series frame
Negative space was also on show at Brando Eyewear and the latest collection from seminal Japanese designer, Yohji Yamamoto. The designer’s exploration and fascination of the round eye shape has continued with the new collection, but has experimented with traditional eyewear shapes. The YY7008 sunglass houses round lens forms within a thick acetate silhouette, creating a feeling that the matte-finished lenses are pushing through the front of the frame.
The YY7008 sunglass
Parasite Eyewear has a reputation for outlandish designs (remember the spider-inspired Vamp frame from 2012?), but in recent years its designs have become more accessible. Creativity is still there in abundance, but there is more experimentation in the form of material combinations, volume and straighter lines. Its Anti-Retro frame caught the attention of Silmo d’Or judges, winning the coveted Best Sunglass category. Stainless steel and has been combined with a 3D printed structure that comprises side shields, nose ventilation and nose pads.
Parasite Eyewear's Anti-Retro frame
Other models in the new collection take this concept one step further and include a 3D printed sun visor – it is good to see Parasite has not lost its sense of adventure.
Parasite Eyewear's 3D printed sun visor
Blake Kuwahara also won over the Silmo d’Or judges with its Khan optical frame. The Los Angeles-based eyewear designer has taken a different approach to form experimentation.
The Khan frame
Kuwahara, who is also a doctor of optometry, first gained international acclaim as the creator and designer of the engineering influenced Kata Eyewear. He has also designed eyewear collections for Coach, Converse and for New York-based fashion designers Carolina Herrera and John Varvatos.
Instead of focusing on the outside of the frame, Blake Kuwahara looks to the inside. Two separate frames are laminated in a proprietary process that the designer says takes more than two months to complete. This season’s collection has explored the dichotomy of classical eyewear shapes, such as the round eye seen on the Khan, with unexpected outer shapes – as seen on the Khan’s square outer profile.
Classical eyewear shapes are the starting point for Italian brand Hapter too, but utilise modern materials and manufacturing. Co-founder Eric Balzan was heavily inspired by a pair of World War One glacier military goggles he found on a summit within the Dolomite mountains in 2009. The practical and functional design, quality of materials and functional design meant the goggles were pretty much usable. Updating this concept in a contemporary way was a research project that took four years.
The M06M-N sunglass
M06M-N is a sunglass with military-supplied fabric and one-piece stainless steel construction. The fabric is applied to the sheet metal before the silhouettes are cut and finished. Shaping then turns the 2D model into a 3D frame, a process made more complex by the anti-glare side shields that need to be carefully crimped.