Origami eyewear by MYKITA

Founded in a disused kindergarten in former East Berlin in 2003, artisanal eyewear manufacturer and White Line Hotels collaborator MYKITA has steadily built itself a solid reputation as a pioneer of exceptional quality, innovative eyewear with the looks to match.

MYKITA merges traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology to produce functional, minimalist eyewear more akin to a piece of precision engineering than run-of-the-mill specs. Patented hinge concepts give the brand its signature identity with individual frame elements cut from thin sheets of stainless steel before being manually shaped in a series of separate steps, making awkward screws and soldering a thing of the past.

The perfectly balanced combination of technology, design and pure aesthetic inherent in MYKITA frames has led to collaborations with avant-garde designers by the likes of Bernhard Willhelm, Alexandre Herchcovitch and Rad Hourani, along with appearances on international catwalks. Not surprisingly, MYKITA has become a cult icon amongst fashionistas, celebrities, musicians and eyewear aficionados.

With an in-house handmade business philosophy, the boys behind MYKITA are pushing the boundaries of modern manufacturing and leaping over those of modern design. In 2011 they sold over 160,000 frames, each pair lovingly hand-assembled at their Berlin workshop, while in 2010 they developed the revolutionary MYLON, an extremely lightweight and flexible material used to craft their sports eyewear line, MYKITA MYLON.

Unlike typical sportswear frames with their masculine, cyborg-esque designs, the MYKITA MYLON range draws inspiration from 70s sport glasses and, with MYKITA’s signature use of cutting-edge technology, dissolves the border between fashion and sport.

The original home of MYKITA helped shaped the inquisitive minds of its founding fathers by fostering their learning and encouraging them to think outside the box. And although the brand has come a long way since its humble beginnings, the legacy of the kindergarten lives on in the brand’s name which is derived from “Kita”, a common German abbreviation for kindergarten.

MYKITA eyewear can be found at selected opticians and concept stores worldwide, and online.

All photographs by Mark Borthwick

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