Eyestylist

French eyewear: Limited Edition JF 2910SL sunglasses

12th March 2020

A creative collection by Jean-François Rey

French designer Jean-François Rey is a 1980s enthusiast and reminisces with fondness about those years when he first made a name for himself as a creative designer of sunglasses and specs. Today, his eponymous line includes the 1985 collection – highlighting emblematic revisited classics of this significant decade in fashion as well as some creative styles that point to this particular passion and influence.

The most recent addition is the Limited Edition JF2910SL – a concept frame with an inventive design inspired by tennis wear of the 80s, and more specifically the sport’s retro visor cap.

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This metal model offers a round retro eye shape with a top bar which wraps around the front. The “peaked structure” appears to rest on this bar shading the eyes with a layered solid and textured construction.

The style is available in raw urban tones of ruthenium, black or khaki finely highlighted by hand in electric tones which add to the innovative sporty design. A range of related designs include an optical version – JF2910SL – (pictured above) and the minimal JF29120016. For more information: www.jfrey.fr

Design + Inspiration

Art works: l.a. eyeworks, California

11th March 2020

‘The lens cleaning cloth re-imagined as a canvas for creative action’

l.a. Eyeworks – whose long-term commitment to the art world has evolved through many years via an exciting legacy of collaborations with visual innovators – artists, illustrators, graphic designers and photographers – has a fresh line-up of art inspiration coming our way shortly. The brand has commissioned Los Angeles-based artists Liz Young and Julian Hoeber, and designer Gere Kavanaugh, an AIGA Medalist to create new designs for their cleaning cloths accompanying all their Spring 2020 eyewear and sunglass styles.

Above: the design by Gere Kavanaugh, a prolific voice in the history of American design, Gere Kavanaugh’s pioneering spirit and talents have touched almost every aspect of the discipline. A unifying thread throughout Kavanaugh’s work is the designer’s passion for colour (“I could eat colour”), bountifully represented in this explosive, fractal composition.

Julian Hoeber – ‘sampler of eyes’ design

Julian Hoeber’s artwork for the iconic eyewear label explores the mysterious territory between oppositions – organic and inorganic, conceptual and experiential – as a way to illustrate the workings of the human mind. Hoeber’s sampler of eyes is described as “representing a journey from a literal self-portrait along a path of historical and pop culture references to an almost complete (and yet recognizable) abstraction”.

Working in diverse media, often with labor-intensive methods, artist Liz Young focuses on themes that evoke the beauty, fragility, and inevitable decay of nature and the human body. Perhaps metaphorically referencing the American West, Young’s photograph of a horse’s eye captures a moment of stillness, a poetic pause between vitality and decline. Find out more about l.a. Eyeworks at www.laeyeworks.com

Reviews

Colour trends: Essedue new-season sunglasses, Italy

10th March 2020

Big, colourful and bright!

Essedue’s acetate sunglasses for Spring/Summer are for those who love statement design and Italian finesse with quality UV protection. Model 360 has a wide enveloping square-ish shape and a sculpted ‘bevelled’ effect on the front, a charming detail which highlights the artisan skill. www.esseduesunglasses.com/en/product/woman-cateye-sunglasses-mod-360/

Model 458 by Essedue: in fluo pink (pictured), black and tortoiseshell

Model 458 – inspired by a cateye in a thick sumptuous glossy acetate, is an equally glam shape with a clear retro inspiration and a modern pop of colour (choose the pink fluo with baby pink temples and cute end tips matching the front) for the perfect new season revamp. https://www.esseduesunglasses.com/en/product/cateye-sunglasses-mod-458

Design + Inspiration

SALT. Optics – into Spring/Summer

9th March 2020

The natural landscapes of California and the colours and textures of endorheic basins of the world have inspired a new mood and colour palette in the C1-20 collection of eyewear.

Inspired by effortless beauty, and the natural formations and colours of endorheic basins – the characteristic of which is usually a saline lake or salt flats, the new releases at SALT. bring together two key characteristics, stylish design with a high-class, lasting finish. The collection, which includes new optical and sunglass shapes, is made in Japan, where producers create the frames according to time-old traditions.

Above: the Hillier sunglasses by SALT. Optics are named after the lake in Middle Island, Archipelago of the Recherche, Western Australia – a classically chic oval shape fitted with polarized CR39 gradient lens – available at https://saltoptics.com/products/hillier-tt

Hillier Sun – available in black, taupe, antique rose and toasted toffee

The smallest details, right down to the pins visible at either side of the front of the frames are distinctive in their quality and finish set flush into the surface of the acetate. Alongside classic tones of black and indigo blue, hues inspired by the colorations of salt flats and lakes include taupe, smoke grey, whiskey and woodgrain.

Fuller 50 in black and Fuller 48 in taupe – Collection 1 2020

Model Fuller – available in tones which include black, smoke grey, tortoise grey and woodgrain – is one of the classic 1960s infused shapes in the collection, created in multiple sizes for a wide variety of faces. The thin clean lines of the silhouette – which has a delicate key hole bridge – define the signature timeless aesthetic of SALT. VIew model Fuller at: https://saltoptics.com/products/fuller-50-rx-tg

SALT. Optics optical and sunglass collections are designed in California and made in Japan. The models in Collection 1 2020 are available through selected optical retailers and online at www.saltoptics.com. CN

Design + Inspiration

Exclusive collection: EOE 10th Anniversary

6th March 2020

Collection 2020: re-edition of ‘favourite styles’ with elegant contemporary finish – a celebration of the sustainable label’s 10th Anniversary

One of eyewear’s innovative ‘treasures’, creative, pioneering, and committed to excellence in design, EOE Eyewear is celebrating 10 years in the optics business with inspirations in art and beautiful, wearable signature eyewear collectibles. Among the re-edition frames, each one updated with special nuances and nature inspired hues, are models Burträsk and Abisko – created in two special editions.
The EOE Eyewear brand started in 2010 when Erik and Emilia Lindmark were taking a snowmobile ride outside the small village of Ammarnas in northern Sweden. The white and softly rolling landscape gave birth to the idea of an eyewear brand that would combine inspiration from the barren nature of Lapland with the fastidious elegance so significant for Scandinavian design.
To mark the special Anniversary, EOE Eyewear has also been developing a special artistic collaboration. Finnish artist, Linda Linko has worked to translate some of the most evocative places and materials of their homeland which have inspired the EOE co-founders Erik and Emilia Lindmark throughout their first 10 years. Her work (above) will appear in packaging and cleaning cloths in 2020.

Burträsk is the cool cateye of the EOE Eyewear “family.” Inspired by Emilia’s grandpa, this dramatic feminine statement frame is now reissued in a new material, made entirely from waste products from inside the EOE Eyewear factory.

The light modified cat’s eye shape of the second Burträsk edition is a wonderfully creative interpretation of this dramatic shape, with a lightness achieved through the open sections above the lenses and the narrow semi-rimless structure of the smooth metal which frames the top rim.

Model Abisko is named after a village located north of the Arctic Circle, a place known for spectacular views of the aurora borealis. The newly updated aviator shape has a very fine chic profile and highlights the U-shape of the Lapponian Gate, a striking element of the local landscape. Produced in a wonderful trendy green tinted titanium, the new edition also has a graduated tinted lens, inspired by the colours of the Northern Lights.

Meanwhile the Abisko Round takes the concept further in an oval eye shape with a uniquely feminine yet minimal design. Inspiration for the subtle delicacy of the light pink-purple lens tone comes from the early morning hues of Lapland’s crisp winter skies.

“All of our frames are sustainably produced and fully recyclable and bio-degradable. EOE of today is considered a pioneer in sustainability. In 2019, we broke new ground when launching REGRIND, a concept which made us the first player in the global eyewear industry to produce new frames made from old ones.” – Emilia Lindmark, EOE Eyewear

For more information visit www.eoe-eyewear.com

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Eyestylist

French eyewear: Limited Edition JF 2910SL sunglasses

Art works: l.a. eyeworks, California

Colour trends: Essedue new-season sunglasses, Italy

SALT. Optics – into Spring/Summer

Exclusive collection: EOE 10th Anniversary