Matsuda
All brandsTwo years to one model
About the brand
A Japanese house grown out of the fashion label of Mitsuhiro Matsuda, who founded his brand in 1967 and released his first eyewear collection in 1989. The frames are made in Sabae through two hundred and fifty steps, from titanium, stainless steel, sterling silver, solid 18-karat gold and acetate. Two years can pass between drawing and finished model.
- Origin
- Japan
- Material
- Titanium · stainless steel · sterling silver · solid 18k gold · acetate
- Runs
- Permanent collections and the Heritage line
Acetate that rests three months
Japanese acetate rests for over three months before it is worked. This is not ceremony but necessity: in that time the material releases the tension of pressing, so the finished frame will not warp in heat.
Polishing is done by masters who apprenticed for ten years, and it is the last of two hundred and fifty steps. The count is not advertising - each step is a place the frame can be ruined, so none is added without reason.
What Matsuda brought back from Paris
In 1964 Mitsuhiro Matsuda went to Paris with Kenzo Takada, his classmate from Bunka. Takada stayed; Matsuda returned and founded his own label in 1967. Art Deco geometry, Gothic architecture and industrial metalwork are still the vocabulary of the house - eighteen years after his death.
