Ryan Adda Celebrates Stylish Minimalism
Ryan Adda has built its niche designer eyewear brand on the premise that eyewear should add to a person’s natural charm, rather than fight for attention.
Minimalistic, sophisticated, and elegant, the brand is building a loyal fan base in Europe, Asia, and Australia.
mivision asked Founder Ryan Ho what makes Ryan Adda special.
Q. What is your design philosophy for Ryan Adda?
English poet and painter, William Blake, once said: ‘Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed’. Our brand is based on this philosophy. We believe in the beauty of the nakedness of the face.
The first thing people notice is your face, and we believe your glasses should help to enhance your beauty by flawlessly and seamlessly becoming a part of your face, your personality, and your style.
Q. How did Ryan Adda start?
Ryan Adda started as a collaboration between myself and Agnes Chin. I am a qualified optometrist and have been featured as an eyewear stylist for For Him Magazine in south-east Asia. Agnes is an optician.
We’ve both been in the industry for over 20 years.
I’ve always seen myself as a change maker. I want to shift the status quo to enhance efficiency in the things around me. It was that passion that sparked this brand; a brand that had a subtle yet strong presence, with clean, unfussy lines.
Q. Why does someone choose Ryan Adda over other brands?
Ryan Adda’s frames gravitate towards being minimalistic, sophisticated, and elegant. We believe eyewear should add to your natural charm instead of taking away the focus from you. Your glasses should not demand attention and become the centre point, instead, they should help accentuate your face by helping to enhance your natural beauty. Ryan Adda frames do just that. When someone looks at you, they see you in all your natural glory, not the eyewear.
Q. Do you have a typical customer?
Any individual who values simplicity, sophistication, and elegance, coupled with functionality and timeless style. But our typical customers are in their 20s and above; and they are multicultural metropolitan dwellers who like iconic and contemporary design.
Q. Who are the designers of Ryan Adda?
We have a team of designers from around the world working with us on our designs. We are currently collaborating with renowned French designer Mickaёl Guillot on our Zen eyewear range, which will be launched at the upcoming Silmo Singapore on 12–14 April this year.
Q. Talk us through the design process.
Designing a frame isn’t a piece of cake. It is a collaborative process between an optometrist and the designers to ensure the frames are not just a piece of art but are also functional and balanced.
Details of vertex distance to panto tilts and form weight all need to be considered to make the eyewear functional.
I work closely with our design team on the concepts and directions of each frame. Our designers then draw 2D and 3D renditions, which we further refine.
I tend to shift through acetate colours to give our customers the widest range of choice in colourful eyewear.
We focus on all the details minutely, from colours and processes to the best coating and fitting. It’s part of making sure our customers have the best. Always.
Q. What has inspired the latest Ryan Adda collections?
Each collection by Ryan Adda derives inspiration from different areas of life. But our core inspiration lies in the naked, natural beauty of the face.
All our frames follow a minimalistic concept that brings the focus to the wearer by enhancing their beauty, instead of hogging the limelight as eyewear.
Our up-and-coming Zen collection is inspired by the sophistication, elegance, and simplicity of life. The Zen collection frames effortlessly camouflage with the wearer, becoming such an integral part of their face it seems like they were born with it.
The Me collection gets its inspiration from the architectural designs of the places that I have visited as I’ve travelled the world. Each architectural wonder that has had a profound impact on me has been eternalised by becoming a design element of the Me collection.
The One collection is inspired by the boldness of colours, patterns, style, and fashion. One collection frames aren’t for the faint-hearted. They’re for the trendsetters who aren’t afraid to wear their personality and show the world who they are.
Then there’s the Ryan Adda Flight collection. These frames are a concoction of acetate and titanium, creating a powerful fashion fusion. They’re designed for both Asian and Caucasian fitting, offering a variety of styles with adjustable nose pads for those who need extra bridge stability.
Q. Describe the production process.
Production is obviously a crucial part of our brand to ensure quality and consistency. We take pride in using only the best and finest factories that also produce eyewear for major eyewear brands around the world. Getting these factories to produce for us in smaller quantities is not easy, but having their guidance to create frames of the highest quality is something we are proud of.
Q. Is there anything unique or special about how Ryan Adda is made or in the materials used?
Yes, we only invest in the best quality materials for manufacturing our eyepieces. We use lightweight materials like titanium and high-quality acetate for manufacturing most of our designer frames.
Titanium is highly durable, hypoallergenic, non-corrosive, and biocompatible while acetate, which is used to make part of our Zen, One and Flight collections, is also lightweight, durable, and hypoallergenic.
Q. What do you think will be the new big trend in eyewear ?
Simplistic, minimalistic, and nude are the new buzzwords in the eyewear industry. Eyewear should make the wearer stand out in the crowd and not become the focal point by clashing with the natural beauty of the wearer.
The world is a chaotic place, and we all seek calmness, peace, and tranquility. This quest for becoming one with nature will manifest as the latest trend in every aspect of life. To narrow it down to the eyewear industry, the inclination now is for functional eyewear that fits today's pace of life and does not overwhelm the wearer.
Visit: ryanadda.com
Nostalgic eyewear shapes are making a comeback – shapes that give more attention to functionality and timelessness. In terms of colours, pastel shades to match the nudes will be most in demand.
We have lots in our pipeline and are experimenting with exciting shapes and colours.
As a company, we love breaking boundaries. Our next launch will be Zen, which is all about minimalist designs and bright and pastel colours to suit a nude/simple look – the current trend.
Sea2see has launched a ‘sea stainable’ clip-on collection; clips for seven new prescription models that quick ly and ea sily attach to the main frame with magnets for a secure and stable fit.
“Our new tech clips attach with four magnets – not just two – to ensure they do not move. We have also allowed for extra flexibilit y at the temples, reducing the pressure on the fronts and thereby mak ing sure the clip remains straight and totally stable on the fra mes,” explained François van den A beele, Founder and CEO of Sea2see Eyewear.
The clips’ colour schemes are beautifully in tune with the main frames.
Visit: sea2see.org
Slovenian brand, Laibach & York, has been hand-craf ting eyewear for high profile clients since it was founded in 2013 by Blaž Oberč, an industrial designer with a Master’s in eye optics. This year, Canberra is the shining star of Capital, a Laibach & York collec tion of frame designs inspired by capital cities around the world. This bold, rec tangular cat-eye showcases the daring Australian spirit in a light weight colour ful frame that won’t go unnoticed. Visit: laibach-york.com
Launched at Mido in Februar y, Angelo is one of three styles from Movitra’s latest limited-edition range. Made in Italy, this frame is created in acetate, stainless steel, and titanium. It’s available in black and Havana, combined with a green or elec tric blue flash sun lens from Zeiss. "This aviator design takes our DNA to new height s… it is a ver y technical and aesthetically studied design, an achievement that combines our passion for the Italian design tradition alongside a continuous pursuit for excellence in innovation, materials, and detailing of the frame,” said Giuseppe Pizzuto, the brand’s co-founder. Visit: movitra.it
Peoples from Barbados (PFB) has collaborated with British luxur y eyewear brand, Linda Farrow, to create a special edition collec tion of sunglasses and blue light blocking glasses, that fuse chic and soulful Bajan spirit and the Caribbean colour palet te of PFB with the fine qualit y of Linda Farrow. A unisex shape, based on an iconic Linda Farrow design, the frame has been released in three unique Bajan colourations with fronts in tor toiseshell, midnight blue, or sand-toned cr ystal. The glamorous, eye-catching sunset gradient tones adorn the thick statement acetate temples, inspired by three dif ferent moments during the colour ful set ting of the Caribbean sun. The collec tion comprises just 150 custom-made sunglasses/ blue light blocking glasses (50 models in each colour). Visit: peoplesfrombarbados.com
The Japanese word Danshari is made up of three ideograms: Dan – throw away or get rid of what weighs us down and/or takes up space; Sha – refuse or rejec t what is useless; and Ri – move away or separate meaning, learning to detach.
The Japanese eyewear brand Danshari takes inspiration from this concept, developing high qualit y, minimalist frames. Pic tured is MissU, craf ted with Japanese titanium with beta titanium laminated temples, and charac terised by an ex ternal acetate profile on the front to frame the titanium wire.
Available in elegant colour combinations of passion red acetate with silver-coloured titanium, black acetate with medium-gold titanium, and purple acetate with bronze-coloured titanium.
Visit: dansharieyewearjp.com
Fleye Copenhagen’s Decades of Design collec tion celebrates two decades as one of Scandinavia’s leading eyewear companies.
“Decades of Design is inspired by the Danish ‘lagkage’ – asymbol of celebration,” said Annet te Estø, Head of Design. She explained that the lagkage is also a symbol of old Danish traditions, renewed and modernised through time and yet still a tradition to this day. As always, small details make a big impac t. The acetate collec tion explores complex colour combinations and unites beautiful silhouet tes with modern shapes. The carbon/wood collec tion explores new st yles of tex tures for a sensor y experience, and the beta-titanium collec tion reinterprets classic st yles, with beautiful colours and discrete details.
Visit: fleye.dk
New to ProOptics is McLaren Vision, an eyewear collection that distils many of the skills, techniques and principles finessed over 50 years building supercars. Each frame is manufactured in France, in collaboration with L’A my Luxe and using innovative technologies such as 3D printing, physical vapor deposition, metal injection moulding, and laser cutting.
Whether creating supercars or sunglasses, McLaren always pushes boundaries and challenges nor ms.
Contact: ProOptics (AUS) 02 8007 6041
Marcolin and Harley-Davidson Motor Company have renewed their licensing agreement for the design, manufac ture, and worldwide distribution of optical frames and sunglasses branded Harley-Davidson. The new arrangement includes the addition of per formance and protec tive sunglasses designed for on-the-bike use.
This new categor y of sunglasses will include foam linings and removable gaskets and will meet other applicable ANSI safet y features such as high velocit y and high mass impac t.
All Harley-Davidson branded eyewear by Marcolin will continue to include key iconic element s, such as subtle logo integration, motorcycle inspired detailing, and designs influenced by Harley-Davidson. The par tnership runs through until 31 December 2027.
Contac t: Marcolin (AUS) 02 8456 0946