Collection reveals from Luxottica have always captured the eye, styling zeitgeist with its prodigious portfolio of brands spanning sectors across the market from mainstream to high fashion. This year’s preview put designs and ideas related to sustainable living as a theme running through many of its marques.
These ideas are characterised by offering wearers the chance to live creatively while displaying a feel for nature and technology. This puts the emphasis on positivity, with frames featuring visual interest through shapes, colour and form. Wearable art would not be too bold a claim for pieces such as Dolce & Gabbana’s sunglass featuring a deep-sided cat’s eye with a vented lens and angular sides. The brand continues with classics and calls on the cat’s eye in animal print, monochrome and pinks in a campaign fronted by Kylie Jenner.
Alain Mikli picks up the fashion trend of euphoria in AO5071, a limited edition piece drawing from the archive that calls on the leaf story. As ever for the brand, colour is at the core. Alongside the expected sharply contrasting block colours with black are more earthy, pastel shades.
Science-inspired looks also feature across the collections as the shield makes a return alongside futuristic aviators and oversized shapes. Michael Kors, Armani and Versace are among those picking up on the trend.
Representing nature through its colours is another distinguishable theme, as the idea of pigmented, earthy hues inspired by nature shine through in many designs and bring the wearer closer to the natural world. This idea sees the shapes in biotechnology brought to the fore with detailing such as plant fibres.
Tiffany offers an array of pastel shades drawn from its gemstone collection to contrast natural colours with forward-looking and traditional shapes. These include oversized squares and rounded triangles coloured with a gemstone palette.
Other interesting treatments include frames evoking a festival-feel with a bevelled lens employing a faux clip-on effect. The faceted lens is contrasted with a metal frame in combinations such as Tiffany Blue and silver or grey and gold. Elsewhere, Tiffany takes the science-inspired route with the oversized angular frame offering a 1970s spaceman vibe.
Giorgio Armani also adds a 1970s feel to its line up of classic shapes and hues, which offer a distinctly deeper, heavier take on its timeless appeal. The marque also makes time to echo the facetted lens effect featured in Tiffany but marries it to heavy acetates featuring voluminous side depths and angular geometry.
No collection launch would be complete without a birthday celebration and this year marks the 50th anniversary of Vogue. This not only gives the brand the opportunity to showcase classic trends from across its five decades but also chimes with the vogue for everything 1970s.
Boldly, Vogue ‘dedicates its 50th anniversary celebrations to everyone who has shaped the way we see the world since 1973’, but the exuberance of the brand cannot be faulted. Leopard print, black and translucent acetates abound as Vogue romps through the decade in a cascade of pink. The range aims to showcase wearers through colourful, inclusive, and creative pieces as Vogue declares: ‘The brand celebrates how real people make the trends an expression of more than just fashion. It’s about being proud of who you are and having the confidence to make it a look’.
While the 50th anniversary capsule collection takes a shape from each decade, elsewhere in the line up the Y2K generation is treated to modern geometries, marbled pinks and, dare we say it, retro shapes from the noughties.