Reviews

Rule-breaking continues to add flavour across the catwalks; some say the appeal of the obscure and the fantastical is very much a part of a new mood of individualism. Popping out of this new wave, the ‘Spectacles en Fourrures’ are a study in unusual pairings, produced in a collaboration between Soho Bespoke and couture fur house, Corbin Paris – www.corbinparis.com – and inspired by surrealist artist Meret Oppenheim’s Dejeuner en Fourrure (MoMA NYC) and Picasso’s love of all things fur trimmed.

Handmade in England, the design is available as a bespoke piece to order via Soho Bespoke’s Charlie Ingham, in a choice of exclusive materials including black Orylag. Ingham, who gave Eyestylist a preview of the new design at the Century Club last week, is the founder of London’s exclusive made-to-measure eyewear service – www.SohoBespoke.co.uk – producing handmade rare acetate and buffalo horn designs using traditional spectacle-making techniques.

For more information and to view the Soho Bespoke film about their British artisan production, visit www.SohoBespoke.co.uk CN

The stunning beauty of Australian Botanical plants and flowers is the theme for the lovely new Limited Edition collection by Jono Hennessy. Flattering angularly sculpted shapes and expressive colours in acetate and metal influence the frames, as seen in style 8381 (above) in lush Lechenaultia Blue. Other gorgeous colours include Sturt Desert Pea and Outback Ochre. For more details on this special collection visit www.jonohennessy.com JG

Spotted at the Milan show: a favourite style at Berlin’s Lunettes Kollektion – Tabula Rasa – which comes in a new capsule collection focusing on engraved temples and etched lenses. Unique and mysterious, the decorative effects add a splash of street energy to a classic style, fitted with charming pale tinted lenses, on point but not over flashy. Subtle yet visible to the onlooker, the lens engravings are based on signs, arrows and geometries influenced by the architectural shapes of Marrakesh, and appear on all colour choices, from a warm pale yellow through to a copper effect mirror. Lunettes Kollektion is a small Berlin based label, known for its high-profile designer collaborations, that has allowed it to achieve a strong following in fashion circles in Germany and further afield. www.lunettes-kollektion.com CN

The boom in exploring new materials brings lots of innovative proposals to eyewear, some fabulous, well researched and carefully developed. Among a pack of start-ups at the Milan fair last weekend, one Italian company, Morà, showed marble frames, lined with carbon fibre, to create an artisan product that requires complex high-tech processing and painstaking hand-finishing. The collection has been achieved thanks to expertise at Officine Polimata, Italian specialists in the field of precision engineering using numerical control technology. The frames undergo 35 industrial processing steps and 78 hand-finishing steps  – quite incredible really – and some designs include titanium and semi precious stones for a unique custom finish. Available from September 2016, the look and feel of these designs varies tremendously depending on the natural colour, striated patterns and texture of the marble or stone (above, an example of a frame in Carrara marble) from which they are created, and the decorative titanium inserts, finished in subtle tones of gold, palladium or gunmetal. www.mora-eyewear.com CN