Mikli
Alain (1955). Armenian designer and entrepreneur. He has allied style and fashion with the glasses industry. He studied at the École d’Optique in Paris. In 1978, he opened a small studio where he created his first designs, which were extravagant and richly inventive. He has been invited to collaborate with some of the most famous designers, including Montana, Lagerfeld, Chanel, Gaultier, and Donna Karan. He owns the license to produce glasses for Philippe Starck and Jil Sander. He has created lines for Bausch&Lomb, Opto-Inter, and the Italian group, Persol.
&Quad;2003, April. Mikli’s 25th year of production. The turnover of the last few years has grown continuously: in 2000 it reached 30 million euros (up 20% on the previous year), in 2001 it was 35 millions, and in 2002 40 millions. The collections designed by Alain Mikli include the brands Mikli, Alain Mikli, Starck Eyes, and Issey Miyake. They are produced entirely in the Jura region of France and in China. The growth of turnover is due to the Asian market (excluding Japan), representing 2.9 million euros in 2002. During the 1980s, he collaborated with Chantal Thomass, Guy Paulin, Anne Marie Beretta, Claude Montana, and designed the Onyx line for RayBan and the Izzard line for the Japanese firm Sun Reeve. It was his idea to eliminate screws from glasses and substitute them with a type of zip, the “biolink.” Every piece is unique. His favorite material is acetate with inserts in wood and cotton. In 2001 his dragonfly glasses debuted all over the world. He collaborated with Philippe Starck for the Starck Eyes collection. Together with Issey Miyake, he launched folding glasses. During the 1990s, Wim Wenders asked him to create eight pairs of glasses for the film, Until the End of the World; Bono, the singer of U2, launched “miklivision,” camera-glasses that leave your hands free.
&Quad;2003, April. The new line of glasses by the Armenian designer was made exclusively in titanium, a resistant but extremely light material. In its raw state it is gray, but Mikli’s shell mounts are very colorful: red, blue, chocolate brown, khaki, plum, and black. Every year, the brand sells 450,000 pairs of glasses and has 220 collaborators. In 2003, turnover had reached 24.5 million euros.
&Quad;2003, June. Alain Mikli glasses opened a new shop in Helsinki. The French group had ten own-brand stores around the world. Like all the others, this one was designed by Philippe Starck.