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The Atelier

Where titanium
becomes sculpture.

Fukui, Japan Est. 1905 22 Stages

The Philosophy

We don't manufacture frames.
We make objects.

The distinction is not semantic. Manufacturing implies process — input, output, volume. Making implies intention — every decision, every detail, every surface treated as if it matters. Because it does.

At Atelier Vingt-Deux®, every frame begins with a question: does this deserve to exist? If the answer is yes, then the answer to every subsequent question — what material, what finish, what proportion, what lens — follows from that commitment. Not from cost, not from convenience, not from what the market expects.

The result is a frame that is not trying to look like something. It simply is what it is: an object of genuine craft, made to be worn every day for the rest of your life.

"Titanium is not a humble material. It demands to be treated with precision and respect. When you do, it gives you back something no other metal can — permanence."

Atelier Vingt-Deux® — Design Philosophy
The Aviator — Atelier Vingt-Deux® The Aviator — Coral / MGR
The Collaboration

Jean-Claude Fahri.
The goldsmith's eye, applied to titanium.

Jean-Claude Fahri is one of Europe's most respected master goldsmiths. Over a career spanning four decades, he has worked with the most exacting materials in fine jewellery — gold, platinum, stones of the highest grading — developing an understanding of material precision that very few craftspeople in the world possess.

When Atelier Vingt-Deux® approached Fahri, it was not to create a "designer frame." It was to ask a craftsman who thinks in terms of permanence and precision to look at aerospace titanium through the lens of jewellery-making — to ask what happens when the standards of a Fabergé jeweller are applied to eyewear.

The result was the Private Collection — a series of frames that exist beyond the category of sunglasses entirely. Frames set with diamonds, worked in white gold, conceived as objects of fine jewellery that happen to be worn on the face.

Fahri's contribution to Atelier Vingt-Deux® goes beyond the Private Collection. His eye for proportion, his insistence on surface quality, and his understanding of how light interacts with metal have shaped the design language of the entire range — from the width of the temple arm to the geometry of the hinge housing.

This is what it means to work with a master craftsman rather than a design studio. The result is not a look. It is an understanding — of material, of proportion, of what makes an object worthy of the word "permanent."

"He doesn't design. He listens to the material and decides what it wants to become."

— Rafi Goldberg, continuing the maison

24-Carat Gold

The Yellow Gold variants
are not coated.

The Yellow Gold finishes — Polished and Matte Brushed alike — are 24-carat gold, bonded into the surface of aerospace titanium through a precision PVD process. The gold becomes part of the metal itself, not a layer on top of it.

The result is a finish that cannot chip, fade, peel, or rub away. It will look identical on the day it arrives and on the day you pass it on. The same standard a jeweller would apply to fine work, applied to eyewear.

This is why the Yellow Gold variants exist in the collection. Not for ornament. Because if you are going to plate titanium in gold, there is only one way it should be done.

Titanium — 24-carat Yellow Gold
Titanium as Sculpture

The frame as
an object of design.

Grade 5 titanium does not forgive indifference. It is a material that reveals every decision — every radius, every surface treatment, every proportion. Where lesser materials can hide behind paint or coating, titanium shows exactly what it is.

This is why every decision in an Atelier Vingt-Deux® frame is deliberate. The width of the rim is not the default — it is the result of dozens of iterations until the proportion was right. The curvature of the temple arm is not arbitrary — it is the curvature that distributes the frame's weight most evenly. The transition from rim to hinge is not a structural detail — it is the moment where the frame's character lives.

These are the things that a person who wears the frame every day will feel, even if they cannot name them. The frame that fits correctly, sits correctly, ages correctly. That is the object we are making.

The Making

How a frame
comes to life.

From raw titanium sheet to finished frame, every step is deliberate. Nothing in this process is accelerated for volume. The frame arrives when it is ready.

I.
The Material Decision

Before a single cut is made, the grade of titanium is confirmed. Grade 5 Ti-6Al-4V — the aerospace and surgical standard. The same alloy used in the Boeing 777, in Airbus wing spars, in orthopaedic implants designed to last a human lifetime. Nothing lower is considered.

II.
The Design

Each model begins as a proportion study. Not a sketch — a study in measurement. The lens width, the bridge gap, the temple length, the rim thickness: each number is arrived at through iteration, not convention. The standard dimensions exist because they work for average faces. We are not making frames for average faces.

III.
The 22 Manufacturing Stages

Once a design is confirmed, the frame passes through 22 distinct manufacturing stages in Fukui — CNC cutting, profile shaping, temple formation, hinge machining, surface treatment, finish application, lens fitting, optical alignment, geometry verification, and final inspection. Each stage is executed by a craftsperson who has spent years doing exactly this work. There is no automation that replaces the final eye. The frame passes or it doesn't.

IV.
The Carl Zeiss Lens

Once the frame is complete, Carl Zeiss lenses are ground to the exact profile of each model. UV400 and blue light filter coatings are applied at a molecular level — they cannot degrade or peel. The lenses are then fitted by hand, checked for optical axis alignment, and confirmed against the same zero-tolerance standard as the frame itself.

V.
The Final Eye

Before any frame is packaged, it is worn and assessed. Not by a machine. By a craftsperson who has spent years developing the sensitivity to feel whether a hinge is too tight, a temple too stiff, a nose pad incorrectly angled. The frame that reaches you has been judged by a human being who would refuse to wear a frame that didn't meet their standard.

VI.
The Presentation

The finished frame is cleaned completely — every surface, every groove, every hinge recess — then placed in a branded leather case, velvet pouch, and gift box. Not because of marketing convention. Because a frame made to this standard deserves to arrive as if it matters. Because it does.

The Caravelle — Atelier Vingt-Deux® The Caravelle — Blue / MGR
The Fabergé Standard

Built to the standard
of a museum piece.

Fabergé did not make Easter eggs. Fabergé made objects of such precision, permanence, and beauty that they were kept. Passed down. Placed behind glass a century later for the world to study what craft looked like when the person making it refused to compromise.

That is the standard we hold ourselves to. Not because we make jewellery — we make eyewear. But because the commitment is the same. Every frame we make should be worth keeping. Worth inheriting. Worth the question: "Where did you get those?"

You do not need to be able to answer that question. The frame should answer it for you.

Atelier Vingt-Deux® — Museum Standard
1905 Fukui craft tradition
22 Manufacturing stages
24K Yellow Gold variants
0 Compromises made

The Sun Masters Collection

Wear the work.
Every day.

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