Circle Back
Imaginary Lines, GamFratesi and Minä Perhonen for Ørgreen Optics (image: Choreo).
“We both wear glasses, Stine and I,” says Enrico Fratesi. “I wear them all the time, and she wears them only when reading.” Fratesi’s partner Stine Gam, with whom he runs the Copenhagen-based furniture design studio GamFratesi, chimes in: “And Enrico and Akira, the two of them have both always worn perfectly round glasses.”
These reflections marked the beginnings of Invisible Lines, a capsule collection launched in collaboration between GamFratesi, Akira Minagawa of the Japanese fashion brand Minä Perhonen, and the Danish glasses-makers Ørgreen Optics. The collection consists of two pairs of circular titanium frames: one larger model, Hemisphere, and the other, Equator, a smaller, more tightly-wound set of spectacles. GamFratesi worked primarily on the shape of the frames, while Minagawa developed the colour ways: they are available in six colours, including matte peach, gold, and pine brown.
The invisible lines of the collection’s title are intended to reflect the designs’ origins: lines of friendship between Fratesi, Gam, and Minagawa (they’ve known each other for years, having first met at a party); lines of influence between regions and design cultures (Minagawa’s Finnish brand name takes inspiration from a visit to the Nordic countries, while Ørgreen produces all of its spectacles in Japan); and lines of transit across the globe (samples were sent back and forth between Tokyo and Copenhagen during a year in which no-one could travel as a result of the pandemic).
Not that travel would’ve been necessary for the inspection of samples. Titanium, a material in which Ørgreen has come to specialise, is ultra-light and well-suited for transport. “When you’re working with titanium, the challenge is to make it as minimal as possible,” says Fratesi. “The idea to have something which is just a few grams was very attractive to us.” This also gave rise to the circular shape of the eyeglasses. “The circle is a very natural and almost naive way to express a line around the eye,” he continues. Equator, in particular, has the look of a line-drawing of Le Corbusier’s chunky Bonnet frames.
The colour ways counter the severity of the shape, however. “The idea is for the colours to make the wearer happy,” explains Minagawa. “Happy, light, and fresh – like fruit!” This is an approach that he shares with GamFratesi, he explains. “There’s a sympathy between how we all think about colour.” As a whole, the project became an extension of an already existing friendship and shared design sensibility. “It was like old-school letters between two countries,” says Fratesi. “Three designer friends from different sides of the world, exchanging frames which are round, like the globe – it’s a nice story!”
Words Kay Sunden
Photographs Choreo
This article was originally published in Disegno #29. To buy the issue, or subscribe to the journal, please visit the online shop.