Design + Inspiration

New icons in dazzling collaboration edition

The renewal of the collaboration between Jean-François Rey and the famous Japanese video game designer Hideo Kojima is presented through dramatic design work, futuristic in style inspired by the video game, Death Stranding (Kojima Productions). The innovative spirit of Jean-François Rey and his experienced design team and the  creative world of Kojima fuse without limitation in this collection which comprises 4 new models including 2 optical frames equipped with original sunglasses clips (HKxJF01 and HKxJF02), a shell sunglasses model (HKxJF03), and a 3D collector’s mask named Ludens Mask.

Ludens Mask has been referred to as the masterpiece of the collection, and is worn by Sam Porter Bridges (played by Norman Reedus) in the opening scene of Death Stranding. The futuristic mask design was modeled by JF REY Studio and is SLS 3D printed. This iconic piece is presented in a numbered luxury box marked with the emblem of the production house of Hideo Kojima, Ludens Mask is a Collector’s Edition.  Above: Eyewear Designer Jean-François Rey with the Japanese video game designer, Hideo Kojima – photographed in Tokyo. Below: Ludens Mask

The HKxJF01 model is a handmade unisex metal and acetate frame with an original sun clip design. Articulated on a ball joint, the clip opens and remains attached to the temples of the frame via a magnet and chrome-plated section. If its design is inspired by the futuristic world of video games, its style is nonetheless modern and totally current, marked by a bold retro influence. The original shape of the glasses gives the model its unique character and slightly offbeat look.

1970s influences in a fashion-forward line made from ISCC-certified recycled Eastman Acetate Renew & Eastman Tritan Renew materials

Come summer, bigger and bolder glasses will be on our minds. The 1970s looks bring a dash of fun statement style with a preference for large squareish eye shapes, angular designs, and retro-chic graduated colours…all this in a modern collection at the eyewear label Paradigm, which mixes up the old and new with fresh optimism and a spirited and youthful energy.

The eyewear collection at Paradigm is produced, for the first time, in ISCC-certified recycled acetate, a material that is beautiful and fashionable with a high aesthetic value and multiple nuances of colour and colour mixes. According to the producers of Paradigm, Kenmark Eyewear, by using ISCC-certified recycled materials, their company is reducing the amount of newly produced plastics in their collections, while also meeting a growing demand for sustainable fashion – and meeting verifiable standards. Above: the Paradigm collection reinterprets the freedom of bold vintage design – models Ross and Bianca

On the materials, the company says: “We’re proud to offer frames made using 100% sustainable acetate flake comprised of 40% recycled plastic and 60% biobased content from renewable resources.* Our sun lenses are environmentally friendly too, made with 50% recycled plastic and 50% virgin tritan material.* Even our frame cases are made of recycled materials! If you ask us, sustainability has never looked this good.”

* Calculated using the mass balance approach

With so many companies making claims over sustainable achievements, without providing proof of provenance of materials, or meeting any particular verifiable sustainable criteria, the ISCC-certification  is an assurance of the particular contents of Eastman Acetate Renew and Eastman Tritan Renew – as well as the modes of production that are sustainable in themselves.

FATHER$ON eyewear by couturier designer Clarissa Oliverio – a bridge between past and future

The young couturier designer Clarissa Oliverio has created a collection of haute couture eyewear which features luxury Florentine fabrics and silver jewellery. Shown for the first time in Milan in May 2022, each piece is made by hand in Florence with a strict adherence to old-fashioned artisan design and handcrafting. Oliverio describes her designs as “the first glasses in the world set with the velvets and silk brocades of Florence, handmade with nineteenth-century looms, expertly created by the Master weavers of the historic Lisio Silk Art Foundation, established in 1971 to preserve and pass on the work of the Giuseppe Lisio 1906 Manufactory. This extraordinary foundation possesses looms from the end of the 19th century, and produces silk in the old-fashioned way, with just a few centimetres of fabric being produced in one day. Above: the model ‘Rinascimento Fiorentino’ (Florentine Renaissance) – has a structured design with a flat top in white Mazzucchelli acetate featuring a silver crocodile on the temple and silk brocade insert

“Our glasses are all handcrafted, as well as their precious decorations,” says Clarissa Oliverio, CEO and Couturier. “In addition to the insertion of velvets and silk brocades handmade with the looms from the late nineteenth century in Florence, our models boast silver jewellery applied to the frame, handcrafted by the well-known Florentine goldsmith Marco Cantini.”

About the brand: FATHER$ON was founded by Clarissa Oliverio and the collection was launched for the first time at MIDO in 2022. Born and raised in Italy in the city of Como, better known as “Lake Como”, of parents who made and traded items in pure silk, Clarissa Oliverio grew up with a natural love of craftsmanship of hand-made silk items; through contact with her family’s workshop, she developed a strong passion and inclination for superior artisan creativity and historic modes of production by hand. In recent years she has dedicated herself to the creation of the FATHER$ON project, which was born as a family start-up. Working with her partner, Emanuele Dani, Florentine by birth, Clarissa has turned her artistic capabilities into a business reality that has been well received by the sector for its originality and style. She says: “Constancy and total dedication and an immeasurable passion for the creation of FATHER$ON eyewear always push us beyond the innumerable difficulties, but also towards the enormous satisfactions that an Italian start-up can encounter. We are Italians who are proud of the artistic history of their country, and we aim to create a link between truly creative design and the Italian excellence of the workmanship that passes between the expert hands of the Italian workshops and the historic ones of Florence.” Find out more: www.fathersonfirenze.com