VAVA sunglasses may be new (as in one month old), but the concept is so totally, so squarely from another era — the 80s. In particular, the unisex label looks to techno music of the era, an optimistic new sound that emerged from once-glistening, now-blighted cities like Detroit. Those contrasting extremes, promise and disillusionment, inform VAVA’s two lines: the White Label draws from simplicity and purity, while the Black Label looks to darkness and the underground.

For Portuguese-born, Berlin-based designer Pedro da Silva, this sense of idealism isn’t just conceptual; it’s practical, too. The frames are created with cellulose acetate from Mazzucchelli, artisans of acetate since 1849, and the lenses are made from Barberini crystals. The flatness of the two lenses again harks back to the 80s and its preoccupation with computer graphics, while the cubed hinge, exclusive to VAVA, is influenced by the artist Sol Lewitt and his penchant for bold shapes.

Visit VAVA