Design + Inspiration

Virtual Products Showcase: The British eyewear label Kirk & Kirk is a specialists in statement colour and stylish modern design. Their Kaleidoscope Collection evolves as a celebration of beautiful transparent tones in dynamic combinations and dramatic shapes, each frame created as a work of art to evoke the unique personality of the wearer.

Launching this month, Kirk & Kirk introduce two vibrant new colours across the collection: a vivacious, hot ‘fuchsia’ and a warm, emotive chilli-infused red. Above: Kirk & Kirk model Jane in fuchsia

All twelve of the Kaleidoscope collection shapes come in the two new tones adding a new dimension to the collection as we look towards 2021. The frames are produced in the label’s unique custom-made super-light acrylic, which “gleams like glass with a translucence only found in Kirk & Kirk eyewear”.

Kirk & Kirk frames are designed in the UK and handmade in one factory in France from start to finish, using the label’s unique grade of Italian acrylic.  Some of the frames are popular with celebrities, Robert Downey Jr wears their Cecil in Jade, Victor in Apple and Purple and Carter in Spectrum and British actor Nicholas Pinnock wears model Percy in Stone.

Product: Kaleidoscope collection Brand: Kirk & Kirk Website: www.kirkandkirk.com Contact address: [email protected]

About the Eyestylist virtual products showcase: the Eyestylist virtual products showcase offers a unique launchpad for new avantgarde, artisan or luxury eyewear and sunglass products – through Autumn 2020. The showcase is an initiative designed to connect Eyestylist readers and specialist designers in the absence of international trade fairs + launch events due to the Coronavirus pandemic. For more details about taking part, email [email protected].

3D printed eyewear by Barcelona design studio, Creax

With the rise of 3D-printing, a young generation of designers is coming to the eyewear arena from other specialisms – interested in the sustainable potential of the eyewear alongside the opportunities offered for individual design and customisation.

Josep Mateo Muñoz, product designer, Creax Design, a design and innovation studio in Barcelona, launched Liq Eyewear with focus on the potential of Polyamide and its creative appeal when exploring shapes. “Polyamide is a natural material, it is light, warm and pleasant on the skin,” he told Eyestylist. “The material allows us to design “liquid” shapes which would be impossible to produce with other materials.” The frames at Liq have a lightweight construction achieved with a sculpted finish on the exterior and interior of the designs and finishes are gently textured – with colours ranging from bright red to natural stone-like tones.

With a self-designed magnetic hinge system, Zeiss sunlenses and an attractive protective soft grey felt bag, the Liq designers has managed to balance their love of modern design and fashion in a comfortable, inexpensive product they can produce out of Spain. “Liq started as an internal project at the studio: we thought that it would be a good idea to apply our experience in eyewear design to our own brand taking advantage of the benefits of 3d printing and controlling the whole process from our studio, avoiding overproduction or excessive waste in manufacture.”

About the label: Liq Eyewear first launched in 2018. The liquid-inspired shapes are 3D printed in Barcelona, Spain – and the collection is now widely available in Spain in optical shops. The new 2021 collection promises frames with sculpted decorations and surfaces with holes and openings – watch for new styles such as Liq Rain and Liq Lava opthalmic/sun styles with details only possible using 3D printed technology. www.liq-eyewear.com

“Each frame is the intersection of craft and art – a representation of our vision for modern designs crafted to last….”

Fleye Copenhagen’s innovative, creative concepts expand yet again with the introduction of ‘Elements of Art’: an eye-catching arts-inspired collection which pays tribute to Denmark’s Thorvaldsens Museum, its evocative colours, architectural features and marble and plaster sculptures.

Through a process of experimental molding, the designers at Fleye sought to recreate the mood of the works – and the process of creating them – while adding a contemporary context. As they explain, “Rather than molding in clay and cast, the designers began creating soap in various forms, colours and patterns from the Thorvaldsens Museum. Afterwards the geometrical blocks of soap were stacked on top of each other, creating art sculptures and visions for the new designs.”

The result is a line up of glasses with new inspiring colorways and engravings as well as patterns and playful transparencies created by light reflections and closely aligned to the historic elegance and visual aesthetics of the Thorvaldsens Museum and its exuberant heritage and works of design.

About Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark (www.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk) – the museum is dedicated to the art of the Danish neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, who lived and worked in Rome for much of his life. The museum can be found on the island of Slotsholmen, near Christiansborg Palace. More information about this new season arts-inspired collection at www.fleye.dk