“Designs are flat plans on paper .It is my job to fill in the margins in my head , imagine curves and make it three-dimensional .Do you need experience to do that ? That’s only logical.But I have been making glasses since the age of 17…”
– Japanese crafman in Sabae working on Eyevan manufacturing
In 1972, EYEVAN made a start with a concept of “Eyewear for dressing as a fashion item” and in 1985, it made a sensational world debut. EYEVAN product is known for its timeless design and when we look into hand-written drawings or archives of EYEVAN, we can see Japan’s genuine craftsmanship and creativity and enthusiasm of design team of those days. In 2013 after around 40 years from launch, a new design team reconstructed the brand EYEVAN 7285 based on archives of EYEVAN and expressed what they think is definitely beautiful.
Design sources are archives of EYEVAN, variety of things such as vintage eyewear, telescopes, hand mirrors and old tools that our initial design team collected, and artifacts such as building structures and products of nature the designers saw. These numerous design sources are blended together and are transformed to the products as eyewear.
For example, temple comes from French cutlery in 1940s, metal frame comes from structure of eye test equipment in 1970s and its parts are inspired by arabesque patterns of old Japanese temples. The products of EYEVAN 7285 are made by the combination of craftsmen’s handwork and the state-of the art machine tools in Sabae, Fukui prefecture which stands first in production of eyewear in the world.
With the traditional and the latest processes, many of its designs, looking at first glance simple, are actually artful. Only a handful of craftsmen who are exceptionally skillful in Sabae make eyeglasses one by one through about 400 processes. It can be said that they are more like art works than industrial products.
