What does the fashion industry mean to you as a designer who has achieved great success?
Fashion is something, which never stops. Fashion is always moving very fast and changing. Fashion lives some changes. We are here to adapt ourselves. Our society is changing, our clients are changing, and the fashion is changing too. So, its something, which is very fluent and very fast.

You create collections for many product groups. Are your sources of inspiration constantly changing? What encourages you the most to design?
I always find inspiration from everywhere. You just have to be ready to led the inspiration come to you. A lot of people think that they have to travel to foreign places, but that’s not true. You get the inspiration whenever you are ready to be inspired and you can get inspired by anything. It can be a beautiful dinner or a meal, it can be just walking on the street. You can find inspiration all over the place. Inspiration is all around us.

Compared to your other products, does eyewear design require different qualities?
Yes, if you want to have a success in this business, first of all you have to learn how to translate your brand into a pair of eyewear. Eyewear design does not give you so much space. If you design a dress or a t- shirt, you have a lot of space to explore and to put your prints or designs on it. But with eyewear we have a speacial product here. It is very defined and you have to be very precise. Then of course design has to follow function and this is very important. We have to design a product, which is wearable. Because you can may be wear crazy dress, but if you put something straight in your face you have to have the comfort, the functionality and never forget it is on your face. People are very particular when it comes to their face. So designing eyewear is a really challenge, but I think we did something very well. Because we have a product, which is definitely different than the most of the other products in the market, so it stands out.

What are the main features that distinguish a pair of Philipp Plein eyewear from others?
You can just look at the details. The logo is on everywhere in small spaces. There is small logos inside the temple. Its all in the details and a pair of Philipp Plein eyewear is like a piece of jewelery. It is not even anymore just a a pair of shades, it is a piece of jewelery. When you look at the everything of a pair of Philipp Plein eyewear, you can find these features. It is really something special and of course the quality is outstanding. Because we are working with best of the best, with our partner De Rigo. We have the the best suppliers and manufacturers in the world.

You entered the eyewear industry with your collaboration with De Rigo. Could you tell us about the reasons of this choise?
De Rigo is one of the four big players in the market. De Rigo is a family company, which is very traditional and successful in what they do since many years and it is all about their approach and also the fact that they have the quality and understanding of quality which is very necessary to design outstanding eyewear. Because you can find beautiful product, but then the quality is not the same. This is why we decided to go company, which has all these features, and De Rigo definitely fullfills this. We can may be deliver the design but then you have to have right people to execute it. This is what we have with De Rigo. It is hard to find something at the moment, which is better and higher in terms of quality and design than the a pair of Philipp Plein eyewear. De Rigo also understood the vision, and applied the best the price positioning.

Yakın zamanda De Rigo ile Plein Sport markanıza ait gözlükler için de küresel bir lisans anlaşması imzaladınız. Plein Sport koleksiyonunu ne zaman piyasada görebileceğiz? Nasıl bir koleksiyon olacak?
Plein Sport çok ilginç bir proje, çünkü Philipp Plein Eyewear’dan tamamen farklı. Çok daha ticari bir yaklaşıma sahip ve çok daha geniş bir dağıtıma odaklanacak. Tasarım açısından daha demokratik. Spor bir marka ve konumlandırma açısından Oakley’e daha yakın olabilir. Koleksiyon bu yılın sonunda, gelecek yılın başında piyasaya çıkacak. Yani 2024’ün ilk çeyreğinde Plein Sport gözlük koleksiyonunu piyasaya süreceğiz ve bu bizim için çok heyecan verici. Çünkü Plein Sport markalaşma, logolar gibi özellikler açısından tamamen farklı bir proje, markanın Dna’sı kesinlikle farklı. Teknik olarak hafif çerçevelerimiz, spor çerçevelerimiz, koşmak için çerçevelerimiz, bisiklete binmek için çerçevelerimiz ve tabii ki günlük kullanım için çerçevelerimiz var. Ancak hepsine baktığımızda, işlevin en üstte olduğunu söylemeliyim.

Kasım 2023

Why is innovation important to you? Hasn’t everything already been invented in glasses?
Innovation is part of our dna – the goal is to offer our customers something new and relevant that brings a tangible benefit that didn’t exist before. We strive to experiment with new materials and new design techniques to improve how our frames look, feel and weigh. This is our goal and it seems like it is relevant to others too. We serve over 25,000 opticians in over 80 countries worldwide. Our innovative materials and technologies matched with fine craftsmanship have been recognized with awards such as the Red Dot Award for Product Design. We are the only eyewear brand included in the Museum of Design in Milano. As we know our city is a world capital for design, and it was an honor to sit next to some of the best design brands like Ferrari, Ducati, Vespa, Boffi, Cappellini and so on. 

That’s an impressive track record. You also mentioned quality and craftsmanship. Can you elaborate on your approach in these departments?
We founded our brand along the idea of bringing a level of quality that is unparalleled at this price point. We believe that quality – even more so than price – is part of the definition of luxury. We want to bring this experience to a broad public, part of which may now be buying mainstream brands with an average level of quality. In this scenario we may be the first step into the world of independent boutique brands. Or in many other cases, our customers may be the ones that navigate this world already and enjoy how we constantly evolve our range, while still maintaining the highest possible craftsmanship standards.

Is there a new design direction for the SS23 collection?
For SS 2023 we are strengthening the design direction we have introduced last year. We are convinced this approach is enhancing the power of our families: Air, Bold, Sun.

Can you tell us about Air collection?
Modo’s Air frames have long been an attention-grabber, and SS 2023 is no different. Innovation fused with comfort and style – that’s what we’ve always sought to deliver with our Air frames. For SS 2023, we are introducing five new styles in multiple new colors. All benefit from our patented hinge technology to make them more durable and comfortable to wear.

What distinguishes the Bold collection?
Our Bold frames were first conceptualized to help our customers show off their sense of style and flair. Since then, we’ve continually updated the category with new additions that offer intense colors, unique shapes, and uncompromising construction materials. In 2023 we are having seven more stunning styles.

And the sunglasses?
At last, the Sun collection. In 2023 we will have five more options of frames that protect the eyes from the sun while showing off our sense of style at the same time. HCD (High Chromatic Definition) is our top-notch proprietary technology which makes our lenses stand out in the market for quality and technology. Together Polarized and Anti reflective features it sets us on a different level from most competitors.

You pay a lot of attention to the materials. Which materials do you prefer to work with at the moment?
We work with noble materials like titanium, beta titanium, the finest acetates and hi-tech plastics like our own R 1000 resin. At the moment R 1000 is what we and our customers are having more fun with. It is an incredible material that we picked from the aeronautics, a memory plastic, very resistant, flexible and light with a wide color range. This allows us to create the lightest thin and bold frames in the market. Our R 1000 + titanium line won the Red Dot Award, the IF Award and brought us amongst the finalists of the Compasso D’Oro Award.

Which technical features are typical for Modo?
We like to play with small technical details that are usually loved by opticians and experts and make our frames special for consumers, like our hinges for example. Our hidden screwless hinge delivers several key benefits – starting from no longer having to deal with a screw, which falls off and leaves you “eyewear-less” to include significantly increased stability, strength, and resilience for eyewear. The use of self-lubricating metallic surfaces ensures fluidity of motion and the smoothest rotation possible for a difference that can be felt each time the arms are folded or unfolded. It also enables a sleeker, more streamlined design. The resulting “invisible” hinges foster the ability to create entirely new designs, allowing us to use opaque colors to completely hide the hinge or translucent colors that showcase the hinge’s form and operation.

What are other special features that can be found in your glasses?
There is something big we started developing in SS23, it is a project we very much care about and it is all about customization of our Paper-Thin Rimless collection. This collection has grown to be a best-seller for us and is a real alternative to the leading brands in the market. We thought there still was some unexpressed potential. That’s why we now offer customers the possibility to compose their own frames, by choosing the lenses’ shapes, color combinations, the bridges’ and temples’ sizes.

What is the core of your new SS23 campaign?
Our roots are the core! We were founded in NY and later expanded into our three cities – NY, Milano and Stockholm. We shoot our campaigns rotating across each of them. For the SS23 campaign, we decided to build on our heritage and go back to where we were founded in 1990 – New York City. Because there’s no place like home. And because New York City’s environments and people are just as diverse as our collection of frames. Inspired by elements as varied as a rooftop in the heart of SoHo to the celebration of craftsmanship in Brooklyn’s Industry City, the SS23 campaign brings a vibrant new look and mood to the Modo brand. But one thing that will never change is our commitment to delivering quality, durability, and lightness, no matter where we go.

We can assume that Modo will continue in this direction in the future, right?
Probably yes. We were founded in 1990 along the concept of “Eyewear for the Individual”, which we feel stands fresh and relevant over 30 years later. Our mission to bring the best design, quality and innovation possible in our world remains the same – how we will roll it out along the way is what will evolve constantly. This is what excites us about the future and why we love our job.

Source: Favrspecs

June 2023