Again this year, on the occasion of Pride Month in June, seven world-leading eyewear brands that are part of the prestigious CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) will launch the third annual edCFDA Pride Eyewear Initiative, an annual charitable venture driven to target and highlight specific needs within the broad spectrum of the LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming community. Each designer involved in this awareness and information project has therefore created a limited edition sunglass design, a percentage of which will benefit Bring Change to Mind (BC2M), an organisation dedicated to ending the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental health.

Let's start with Barton Perreira – a visionary brand born in 2007 from the meeting of Patty Perreira and Bill Barton – which has also transferred its constant commitment to sustainability, using plant-based acetates, into the Binti model, characterised by rims illuminated by rhinestones. Blake Kuwahara, on the other hand, proposes the Fickett model (in the opening photo), made using an exclusive lamination process that creates a particular optical and prismatic effect of splitting the frame according to a "frame-within-a-frame" design concept, which has now become the brand's identity signature.

An iconic name that has subverted the rules of luxury with models worn by many artists including Kurt Cobain and Lenny Kravitz, Christian Roth Eyewear, designed by Christian Roth & Eric Domege, is now part of the Dita Group. For the Pride 2024 model, the focus is on shiny black and on significant thicknesses modulated by milling and with rounded edges, with shaded and iridescent lenses. From black, we move on to the colourful Brigitte model created by Krewe, whose bright colours are freed from the sophisticated and complex texture of acetate, also moved by the irregular internal profiles of the rims.

Founded in 2013 by Stirling Barrett, inspired by the architecture and music of New Orleans, Krewe has also rewritten the concept of hospitality in its single-brand stores, transforming them into pleasant and unusual places for social exchange and discovery. Let's now move on to Barbara McReynolds and Gai Gherardi, co-founders of l.a.Eyeworks, a partnership that has lasted a long time. The principle of the brand has always been based on the imagination of power, which is expressed in the wise use of colour, in a marked influence of pop culture, and in the free and provocative language of a communication that has now gained cult status. Rivera, the limited edition sunglass model, is made of coloured transparent acetate flooded by light, and has a square shape and shaded lenses.

A new entry, the Press brand has just debuted with its S/S24 collection, although its founder Jeff Press has been a known figure in the world of eyewear for over 20 years. He is known for his incredible creative force, which draws inspiration from the world of art, design, cars and fashion, with a deep and sincere love for music. His glasses thus release rhythm, energy and infuse positivity: like Cobra, which has a bold shape, round rims and coloured dots of different sizes, which demystify the black of the frame.

Absolute pink, on the other hand, is the colour choice of Selima Optique for Cary, with a shape that is decisive and at the same time gentle, soft and smooth, with a single concession to decoration with the application of rivets on the bridge and temples. Having trained as an optician and optometrist, Selima Salaun arrived in SoHo in 1996 with her first Selima Optique store, becoming a point of reference for her internationally recognisable and appreciated style, which has often crossed paths with the world of fashion. Seven names of creative excellence that have come together to focus on a single objective, because it is true that unity is strength, especially when it comes to defending human rights and the freedom of everyone to simply be themselves.