Frenchman Has Visions of Designing Eye Frames

In the world of eyeglass design, Alain Mikli is, well, a visionary.

He’s an optician turned eye-wear superstar, with licensing agreements to design frames for Claude Montana, Chantal Thomass, Anne-Marie Beretta, Guy Paulin and, come this summer, Maud Frizon. But the line he designs under his own name should not to be ignored. (All are priced from $100 to $500 and are available locally, at such stores as L.A. Eyeworks, Fred Segal, I. Magnin, Optica and Bullocks Wilshire.)

When in L.A. recently, the Frenchman said that if frames are too designed, the wearer’s personality is lost. “I don’t like it when the frame covers all the face. I like to see the brow, the expression of the face and sometimes, in the corner, the eyes. Not like all the frames on the U.S. market. Big, too modern, too much.”