TAVAT // Kafee Capsule Collection

What happens when an iconic design aesthetic with a cult following meets modern eyewear design? Potentially something next-level, as illustrated by the TAVAT Kafee Capsule Collection.

Here’s how it happened: In 2016, TAVAT designer Norman Schureman, also a professor at the Art Center College of Design in California, approached his students with an assignment: They had one week to create a design for a new TAVAT eyewear frame. The design was to blend simplicity with functionality, nostalgia with modernity. The designer who nailed this task is Miguel Harry, whose sunglasses design was inspired by the legendary Café Racers from the 1960s.

As a quick refresher, Café Racers are custom motorbikes stripped down and modified to the maximum. True to the motto: Less is more. Every superficial part gets eliminated in the process, those that remain must serve a clear purpose. The name of the movement is derived from the legendary Ace Café in London, a hotbed for young motorbike aficionados in the 1960s. For these youths, their motorbikes were more than a means of transportation, but subcultural signifiers and symbols of rebellion against stagnant social norms. Their Café Racers provided a sense of community and created an enduring style of motorbike customization.

Miguel Harry successfully transferred the ethos behind these pared-down motorbikes into eyewear design. For instance, the X on the temple screws gives a nod to the x-shaped tape jobs added to motorbike headlights. The shapes of the lenses are inspired by vintage gas tanks. The result of this exercise in functional minimalism lives up to the Café Racer aesthetic: Purist sunglasses that embody the spirit of rebellion and timeless minimalism. In the bigger picture, the Kafee Collection also fits effortlessly into the technical TAVAT portfolio, blending form and function with styles for miles.

Find out more: www.tavat-eyewear.com/

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