Eyestylist

Ideas, concepts, and influences spring from many sources – nature, music, art, fashion, architecture, and much more. The latest eyewear collections demonstrate how designers draw upon a wide variety of familiar sources to create frames that are innovative and distinctive. Cuddly little koala bears – Australia’s favourite fauna – decorate unique Limited Edition sunglasses by Jono Hennessy.

Hennessy and the family love their country, and decided to celebrate the Australian natives with their fluffy ears and amazing nose. KOALA sunglasses are fitted with quality CR39 brown gradient lenses. Visit www.jonohennessy.com for more super sunnies.

The elegance and charm of music highlights designs from the VIVACE Collection that includes XL2116, in a contemporary silhouette with sleek understatement.

Fluidity and smooth design features are crafted in flexible Excellence Titanium, and the frame features temples with delicate colour ingredients that harmonise with subtle contrasts. For additional styles inspired by the world of music in the Line Art Collection explore www.charmant.com

The landscape, colours, and natural beauty of The Isle of Capri inspires Luca Gnecchi Ruscone’s delightfully chic Capri Collection. The newest rendition is Orchid – a glamorous cat-eye in Matt Limoncello with gradient green lenses. The Capri Collection captures the atmosphere, beauty and colours of the Italian Rivera reflected in Luca’s graceful designs. www.lgrworld.com

The rich tones and blossoming beauty of nature influences frames in Oliviero Zanon’s Flowers Collection for Res/Rei. The frames are handmade in a variety of acetates – fusing and overlapping to create designs that express flower petals and delicacy. Amaranto is the latest interpretation in The Flowers Collection that projects feminine flair. www.resrei.com

A clear, tranquil, aquamarine sea comes to mind with Kirk & Kirk’s beautifully transparent design – Ray from the Kaleidoscope Collection – in lightweight, durable Acrylic. The bold shape adds lustre and allure to a design characterised with smooth, modernised elegance. www.kirkandkirk.com JG

The iconic British brand Oliver Goldsmith has launched a superb collection of sunglasses – OG Decades – to celebrate their 90th anniversary. An amazing eyewear journey that began in the “Roaring 20’s” has overcome numerous international crises – including a World War – achieving an enamoured and engaging history that continues to captivate global customers. (Top image: 1930 OG Decades)

Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Michael Caine and Lady Gaga are just a few of the spectacle wearers who have created style legacies wearing Oliver Goldsmith. Nowadays, fashion world luminaries, royalty, rock stars and movie stars embrace the striking, timeless designs.

The collection includes ten different frames that transcend the lifestyle and fashion highlights of each decade, with every design meticulously investigated.

If travels take you to London, include on your itinerary a visit to the stunning OG Store.LDN, in Notting Hill, just off Portobello Road. Here you can connect to the history and heritage of the Goldsmith family, as well as seeing the current collections, and admiring the influential designs that are recognised as historic and timeless. Visit www.olivergoldsmith.com for further details on all the collections at Oliver Goldsmith Sunglasses, and Claire Goldsmith Optical. JG

Bolder. More unusual. Statement-making tones and eccentric combinations. In colour, the direction for 2018 offers an ever widening choice of looks and colour combinations in frame design, tied to the fashion collections, as well as a general desire for self-expression, unique choices and an upbeat, fun and positive focus on exploring and experimenting with new ideas.

Lens colours are particularly playful. ic! berlin’s capsule collection TWOTWO comprises layer upon layer of colour and texture in shapes inspired by the mod movement of 1960s London. The limited edition frame froufrou features oversized circular lenses capped with contrasting sheetmetal inlays. Above: Claudia wears Froufrou in black with orange lens, by ic! berlin – www.ic-berlin.de

Blackfin, the Italian brand of titanium eyewear has added new colours for model ARC in a limited edition. This sunglass has been presented in a special limited edition of just 499 pieces in each of the three colour combinations. With its front in pure titanium and patented Swordfish beta-titanium temples, ARC is available in opaque black/metallic grey with silver mirrored lenses, metallic tropical blue with blue mirrored graduated-tint lenses and metallic red with bright red mirrored lenses (above). The arch, a structural support element, lends an original connotation to the frame, as the name implies. But the arch can also be seen as the span of a bridge, in this case embracing the lenses and enclosing them in the single piece of metal. www.blackfin.eu

Colours that have traditionally been popular in eyewear are appearing in combination with less common choices. Independent designers are particularly creative in this area, proposing, with specialist materials, the classical appeal of a tortoise or Havana acetate with a bright pop of acidic colour, in one single frame. Model Vidice is an artisan design from Stephane Vranjes, an artist and optical store owner living in the South of France. His handmade designs are linked with the medium of photography, and play with colour and individual material mixes. http://eyewear-stephane-vranjes.tumblr.com

At Fleye Copenhagen, new releases focus on summery colours with inspiration coming from traditional Danish smørrebrød featuring foods such as butternut squash, lobster and tangerine. Model Ulrikke offers refined lines and subtle colour schemes, pictured here with the finest golden temples. Find out more about this trendsetting Danish brand at www.fleye.dk CN