Eyestylist

Award Winning Designers Debut New Collections

25th September 2013 Two collections we eagerly anticipate seeing this weekend in Paris are Rolf Spectacles from Austria, and the Swedish designer Anna-Karin Karlsson. Both the Rolf Team and Anna-Karin have won international awards for their unique eyewear, and now they are showing new, innovative designs crafted with even more precision and the finest details. Rolf is launching “advanced/horn” (above) an ingenious creation of select horn plates from water buffalos with an inner wooden core. The result is a harmonic symbiosis that ensures a unique and timeless design, crafted entirely in-house in the Tyrol. www.rolfspectacles.com

Following the success of her impressive and stylish sunglasses, Anna-Karin Karlsson is showing her first optical collection. The bold, strong shapes that characterize Karlsson’s beautiful sun range are equally stunning in optical designs. “Down Lush Boulevard” is an artistic expression in silky black acetate and gold mesh. Luxurious, feminine and striking. www.annakarinkarlsson.com JG

Rigards

24th September 2013 Fine buffalo horn is having a moment. Its attractive, sustainable, natural qualities, comfort and luxurious colourings have long been popular in eyewear. It is a material that requires craftsmanship and skill in the making, just as it did for antique eyewear, and while traditionally associated with classical frame design – most examples are on the theme of of round horn rimmed glasses, often with gold – it is re-emerging in new forms and modern interpretations.

Launched in 2012, Rigards specialises in horn frames with an avantgarde, nonconformist look – a handmade label, as it says itself, on a mission to rediscover the hidden treasures of horn eyewear. Style RG0048 (above) launching this week, is typical of their handcrafted designs, using the finest buffalo horn from small African farms – and tooled by a single craftsperson from start to finish using tried and tested tools and traditional methods. The frame shapes are always distinctive and special details prevail; this round-rim silhouette, for example, is complemented by a subtle “third-eye” on the top of the bridge, inspired by Erlang Shen, a heroic Taoist deity and Indian god in Buddhist scriptures known for his truth-seeing third eye in the middle of the forehead.

Launching a new website tomorrow (25th September), Rigards exhibits its new styles including RG0048 this week in two locations in Paris; at Silmo and Femme SS2014, Galerie De Thorigny (Sept. 28th to October 3rd 2013). The label is one of the shortlisted finalists in the Hall of Frames / Eyestylist Newcomer Award 2013 which will be announced in Stuttgart in October. www.rigards.com CN