MYKITA‘s popularity is built on the snobbery of engineers. I laugh at this statement as Moritz Krueger and Philipp Haffmans describe their eyewear company’s rise in popularity. I met them at Josephson Opticians for MYKITA media day. They were in Toronto for a personal appearance and trunk show at the store. It’s rare to hear something that honest. So that kind of candor combined with the unstoppable ooze of cool the duo resonated made me like them immediately. How can you hate on a guy who can wear knickers and not look stupid? I thought it was physically impossible. I was wrong.

MYKITA is a Berlin based eyewear company. Moritz and Philipp are two of the four co-founders with Daniel Haffmans and Harald Gottschling rounding out the quartet. The Berlin headquarters serves as homebase for all steps of the business from design, production and marketing. HQ is called the Workshop. MYKITA’s snob factor is based on their patented hinge design that removes the need for screws and soldering. Individual frame elements are cut from thin sheets of stainless steel. They are then manually shaped into a functional hinge. The result is an ultralight weight hinge with a number of fitting options for comfortable wearing. The hinge is the stuff of dreams for engineers and they took to bragging.

MYKITA produces a number of collections per season. The N01 collection debuted in 2004 and features all metal frames. Sport casual influences like 70s style skiers and oversize frames dominate the spring summer 2001 offerings. They also incorporate some elements of the 60s Nylor frame.

The Decades collection looks to women’s eyewear from the 1950s and 60s in the butterfly Nylor style. I really like this spring summer 2011 style called Holly pictured above.

The N02 collection incorporates the patented MYKITA hinge and acetate. Spring summer 2011 influences include the 30s and the feminine with cat eye shapes.  This style called Elsa is really nice too.

The Lite collection features the lightest frames MYKITA produces. The frames are made from only three pieces. Spring summer 2011 influences include cycling, 1980s and recreational diving.  Luxe is Mykita’s highest quality line that incorporates naturally sourced buffalo horn, platinum, white gold and other high-end material coatings.

2010 saw Mykita give birth to Mylon.  It’s a patented polyamide that is moulded into any shape desired via a process called Selective Laser Sintering. Form related limitations that conventional injection moulding tools face are non existent with Mylon.  The lightness of Mylon and its unlimited design potential leads to new frontiers in size and comfort.  The science nerd in me loved listening Moritz and Philipe talk all about the technical nature of their designs.  Science and fashion combined gets me every time so it’s not surprising that I love MYKITA.

MYKITA like to collaborate and their partners are in the world of fashion, beauty and art.  Avant-guard designers like Bernhard Willhelm, Rad Hourani, Romain Kremer and Alexandre Herchcovitch regularly feature MYKITA sunglasses in their collections.

Bernhard Willhelm’s spring summer 2011 collaboration with MYKITA make use of the newly developed Mylon material.  Sausages and vintage scuba masks were the inspiration.  Moritz explained that Bernhard had a thing for the sausage shape and he really wanted to see that influence in the designs.  The result is some crazy oversized and super light sunglasses.  The scuba influnce on the collection continues right down to the model names. The three models in this collaboration are named after the famous french trio of divers, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Frederic Dumas and Philippe Tailliez. They aren’t my style but I kinda like the black ones.

Bernhard Willhelm and MYKITA also created metal based models. You might remember the gold aviators worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in the Sex and the City 2 movie. Well that’s Bernhard Willhelm x MYKITA . I initially thought they were kinda tacky, then I saw them in person and tried them on. Oh amazing. I love the totally not street legal red pair.

The MYKITA x Rad Hourani sunglasses were fun. They looked so much better on than I expected.

I got Andrew Sardone of Now Magazine to try on the Romain Kremer sunglasses. They looked great on him. I love the boxy shape of these and Rad’s.

I really loved the Alexandre Herchcovitch x MYKITA collection. They had the snob worthy metal hinge and bright colours. I ended ordering a pair at media day. They were too good to resist.

MYKITA and cosmetic company Uslu Airlines started collaborating in 2006 with their style of choice being the aviator. The names of the models are based on airport codes. The travel theme continues with the small suitcase packaging. The collection has three colour options: grey-brown, neon yellow and lilac. The Uslu Airlines x MYKITA collection also includes matching nail polish.

The Agathe Snow x MYKITA collaboration is really special. They are items that accompany her “All Access World” exhibit for the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin which recently ended.

The sunglasses use the theme of iconic monuments. She used a fine line of gold paint to either draw the skyline of New York or pyramids of Giza horizontally across the lens. The collection is limited to 200 pairs. I really, really considered getting these but I felt the line would eventually drive me crazy.

MYKITA is available at Josephson Opticians and Gafas Optical Shop in Toronto.

See all my photos from the MYKITA Media Day

See photos of the Spring Summer 2011 MYKITA collection courtesy of Brill Communications.

images: mine, courtesy of Brill Communications