Step into a world where timeless elegance meets cutting-edge design. Valentino’s latest Pavillon des Folies eyewear collection by Alessandro Michele blends retro 1970s inspiration with modern sophistication, offering a striking range of styles for the fashion-forward.
WHEN: September 29, 2024
WHERE: Paris, FR
EYEWEAR:
Round Sun Variants: Deceptively simple yet impeccably refined, this 1970s-inspired round sunglass combines slimline temples with the iconic VLogo. Available in three eye-catching variants, from reflective silver mirrored lenses to decorative metal lens discs, these frames redefine elegance and versatility.
Strong Chunky Geometric: With its bold, retro-chic rectangular shape, this frame exudes strengthand attitude. Sculpted from thick acetate with meticulous detailing, these eyewear pieces feature a high bridge for an extra dose of character and are finished with the signature VLogo on the temples.
Round Optical & Strong Chunky Geometric Optical: For those seeking optical precision, these frames offer the same iconic designs in clear lenses. Lightweight metal and luxurious acetate ensure unmatched comfort and sophistication, while the VLogo stands out as a mark of unmistakable style.
ABOUT AKONI GROUP
Akoni, Swiss-based luxury group, designs, manufactures and distributes luxury eyewear worldwide with a commitment to craftsmanship, expertise and quality.
Built upon the firm belief that eyewear should be a true luxury belonging, instead of simply just another additional accessory, Akoni Group is determined to lead the evolution of this marketplace, making the most of the new limitless opportunities that it sees ahead.
The truly global Company relies on a passionate team of experienced, high-end eyewear and luxury industry professionals sharing a singular vision.
Akoni Group’s production takes place in the world’s finest workshops, in Japan, utilizing only the highest quality materials and time-honored techniques. Master craftsmen dedicate decades of their lives to mastering their crafts and passing their knowledge through generations.
”Our goal is to accelerate the evolution of eyewear, by melding together the best in finesse and innovation. In every area – design, materials, finishes and functionality – we will always be the one pushing the envelope, to deliver the type of quality and design that our customers are searching for”.
(Rosario Toscano, CEO of Akoni Group).
The group currently designs, manufactures and distributes Akoni Eyewear, Balmain Eyewear and Valentino Eyewear.
Notes from Creative Director Alessandro Michele
We are fragile creatures, constantly exposed to the sense of limit. We tiptoe on mirrors that shatter under our weight. As we walk, no step comes without the risk of stumbling and falling. As we breathe, no breath comes without a shadowof vulnerability. We move, unstable, inside a transient horizon with no escape path. It’s this precise condition, though, that introduces us to the true meaning of our temporal dimension. What sense would our terrestrial transit have if it were not determined by time, but were infinite?
So, the limited length of existence «contributes to giving it meaning, instead of taking it away» (V. E. Frankl). As immersed as we are in the illogical infinity of the becoming, we innately feel the urge to give a meaning to this tumultuous world and go through the mystery of life in search of something that can give it value and consistency.
In this perspective, beauty can represent a remedy for the anguish that arises from the ephemeral and undetermined nature of our destiny. An anchor to navigate within that «pavillon des folies» we call life. Anything but fleeting and inconsistent, beauty is in fact a producer of comfort that can cherish us in a hug that preserves the warmth of bodies. Its purpose is healing: beauty lulls fragility and cicatrizes the disorder of the real.
What is beauty anyway? As Théophile Gautier said: «the truly beautiful is that which serves no purpose», because it’s not liable to any logic of need. Beauty, though, is seemingly purposeless. I think about the dazzling colors of the flowers. Those ravishing tints are the reasons that move one of the most precious and delicate work we know: pollination. Bees fulfill their extraordinary task of geneticists of the planet relying on taste and aesthetic rationality. They wind their way through a mazy path of colorful shapes fed with a spasmodic search for beauty.
Maybe Michel de Montaigne was right: «There is nothing useless in nature; not even uselessness itself». Especially if we use it to nourish our happiness. We know: when we build beauty, or we spot it in the undifferentiated and chaotic flow of our existences, it feels like being raptured in a state of joy that can tear us away from senselessness. It’s an elusive and incendiary movement that questions our wholeness, acting as a surprising propagator of fullness.
When I say beauty, I am clearly not referring to its universalistic, dogmatic and normative mythologisation. I rather allude to that unique capability to deeply feel and connect with something that unveils and reveals a new universe of meaning: an epiphany in which the connections between us, things and living beings, become immediately visible. Such way to feel can flare up, unforeseen, when we contemplate a work of art or the enchantment of the cosmos.
It’s the unspeakable of a light, the sacredness of a breast full of milk, the magnificence of a finely embroidered dress, the long lingering of soul over flesh, the majesty of the void, the pursuit of fireflies seeking love, the scent of wet soil, the touch of organza ruffles, the miracle of libraries, the delicate layers of a watercolor.
Beauty recalls what Martin Heidegger calls alètheia (ἀλήθεια) namely an unveiling, a revelation. In its astounding irruption, it sets the chest on fire and stirs the ground. Yet, no one can nominate it with precision because, for its own nature, it will always elude the capture of language. Being the ultimate solace of the dreamer, beauty becomes «the power through which one looks at the powerlessness of things» (E. Severino), the irruption of the light that protects us from the grey of senselessness, the magical pharmakon, a balm able to drive us through the abyss of transience. That superfine and precious spider’s web that allows us to float over the void.
~Alessandro
Valentino Eyewear | Valentino Pavillon des Folies | Round Sun Variants
Deceptively simple yet technically complex, this 1970’s inspired sunglass features an highly versatile design characterized by a perfectly round shape with elegant slimline temples highlighted by the iconic VLogo set in stylish knurled endpieces. Crafted of lightweight metal finished with luxurious
acetate temple tips for unmatched elegance and all-day comfort, it will be available in three unique variants: (1) V-Light Gold/Black/Super Strong Silver Mirrored lenses, (2) Antique Silver/Black/Solid Metal Checkered lens replacement discs (lens replacement discs are solid metal and cannot be seen through, making this variant a decorative fashion accessory—not a sunglass), and (3) V-Light Gold/ Black/ Super Strong Silver Mirrored drilled lenses accented with dangling oval-shaped charms corresponding with those accenting the VLogo.
Valentino Eyewear | Valentino Pavillon des Folies | Strong Chunky Geometric
A retro-chic rectangular shape with a strong attitude and squared-front geometric piece. Sculpted of thick acetate with elegant milling throughout the front—as well as the interior—for added 3D richness, dimensionality and balance, this showpiece also features a high bridge for strength of character and the iconic VLogo mechanically screwed onto the temples for maximum visibility and impact. Will beavailable in the vintage-inspired colorways Dark Havana/V-Light Gold/Clear lenses and Ivory/V-Light Gold/Clear lenses.
Valentino Eyewear | Valentino Pavillon des Folies | Round Optical
Deceptively simple yet technically complex, this 1970’s inspired optical frame features an highly versatile design characterized by a perfectly round shape with elegant slimline temples highlighted by the iconic VLogo set in stylish knurled endpieces. Crafted of lightweight metal finished with luxurious acetate temple tips for unmatched elegance and all-day comfort, it will be available in Antique Silver/Black/Clear lenses.
Valentino Eyewear | Valentino Pavillon des Folies | Strong Chunky Geometric Optical
A retro-chic rectangular shape with strong attitude and squared-front geometric piece. Sculpted of thick acetate with elegant milling throughout the front—as well as the interior—for added 3D richness, dimensionality and balance, this showpiece also features a high bridge for strength ofcharacter and the iconic VLogo mechanically screwed onto the temples for maximum visibility andimpact. Will be available in the vintage-inspired colorways Dark Havana/V-Light Gold/Clear lenses.
