Kartell Launches First Eyewear Collection
MILAN — Kartell is launching its first eyewear collection, comprising a main and a design line, for a total of 100 sun and ophthalmic models.
For its Design Collection, the Italian furniture company asked Rodolfo Dordoni, Ferruccio Laviani, Piero Lissoni and Fabio Novembre to interpret the models, each with their own personal style, while employing elements and materials derived from the brand’s industrial design concept.
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“We worked on this project for two years, and it’s not a one-off or a capsule, it’s a long-term concept and full collection in line with our strategy, placing creativity at the center, enhancing beauty and sustainability,” said Kartell’s marketing and retail director Lorenza Luti. “Eyewear is consistent with our portfolio, our lifestyle and our retail spaces. It’s a perfect fashion accessory, as we diversify our offer for our customers while maintaining our values, transferring our design philosophy, innovation and technology in industrial production to eyewear.”
Kartell’s signature transparency, for example, is reflected in many designs. “Kartell has always looked to the future and has always followed developments in materials and production processes in all sectors, not just furnishings,” continued Luti. “Research has gone into the development of new, sustainable materials, too. KartellBio, for example, is a new green material that is being used for the first time in this project and responds to the demand for sustainability that we have been supporting for many years. There’s metal, too, to respect the best traditions of premium eyewear.”
KartellBio is a sustainable acetate derived from cotton and precious wood fibers, used in the frames.
The collections are produced by Italian eyewear manufacturer AVM 1959, and Luti praised that company’s “highly curated, top quality” products and niche positioning. AVM will be in charge of distribution through leading optical stores but the sun collections will also be available in a selection of Kartell flagships, with dedicated windows, and on the company’s online store.
Claudio Luti, chairman and owner of Kartell, underscored the solidity and long-lasting concept behind the project. Speaking of the designers selected, with whom Kartell has worked on several pieces over the years, he said: “We liked the idea they could express their own creativity on the eyewear, fully respecting their own personality.”
The Design Collection comprises a total of 32 articles.
Segmenti is the collection signed by Laviani, extremely light and with a soft-touch finish thanks to an injection molding technique. Laviani admitted during a presentation of the collection at Milan’s Kartell store that, because he had been wearing glasses since he was a child, it was a very personal project but also he aimed to “create objects that would be traceable to Kartell.” He imagined the glasses “made up of simple elements like circles or lines. Because of the shapes that distinguish the frame, I felt it was only natural to call them Segmenti.”
image courtesy of Kartell
Lissoni’s Eyeliner collection is also extremely light, “essential, following the contours of the eyes, framing them and lighting them up with colors that cannot go unnoticed, removing all unnecessary structure. Here, too, I wanted to work on a timeless silhouette, leaving these glasses as simple as possible,” he explained.
image courtesy of Kartell
Novembre found inspiration in the mirrors designed by Kartell cofounder Anna Castelli Ferrieri for his Shield and Line K collections, combining frames and lenses in a tone on tone arrangement, such as green and azure — the names of his daughters Verde and Celeste. “I felt the need to filter reality with the lenses, and as the name suggests, Shield screens the eyes of the wearer,” Novembre said. “The observer is reflected in the opaque frame.” Speaking of Line K, he said the collection “features a bold line that emphasizes the graphic of the eyebrows, creating a shiny bridge that holds the lenses in front of the eyes.“
image courtesy of Kartell
Dordoni said he did not want to differentiate men’s and women’s designs for his Loo-K collection, with rounded and sinuous shapes. The designer made a reference to the Diabolik character and to his mother’s powder case among his inspirations. “One of the images that has stayed with me from my childhood is that of the eyes of a character in the comic books that used to occupy our time and imagination,” he said. “Outlined by a black balaclava, the eyes were the sole element that defined the character’s entire personality.”
image courtesy of Kartell
Kartell’s Main Collection consists of 68 articles in the Lamina, Showpiece, Exube, Borderino and Spiedo lines.
image courtesy of Kartell
Lamina combines two different silhouettes, blended one into the other to create a third shape inspired by Kartell products. A variation on the Lamina theme, Showpiece plays with overlaps and shapes that give transparency on different shades of color. The Exube series draws its inspiration from the cube, extending to form a temple on one side, while on the other, thanks to sophisticated injection molding technology, it blends into the bridge, eliminating the need for conventional metal rivets. Borderino is defined by a contrast between transparency and opacity and Spiedo is the only series made from metal. It features a minimalist line, characterized by the signature badge with the red Kartell logo at the front of the temple.
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