Matsuda

The Story

in 1967 by Tokyo-born Mitsuhiro Matsuda, the brand was originally a high-end fashion house. Matsuda’s fashion designs, which drew inspiration from sources as diverse as the architecture of Paris and the techniques of Tokyo’s famed Bunka design school, quickly won acclaim. 

The introduction of the first Matsuda eyewear collection in 1989 quickly won the interest of fashion aficionado, celebrities, and artists the world over. In the coming decades, Matsuda eyewear would be featured widely on fashion runways, Hollywood red carpets, and the silver screen alike. 

Beginning in the 1990s, Matsuda shades were a staple of Hollywood costume design. The brand has appeared in a wide array of iconic late-century films, from Beetlejuice to theTerminator film series. 

In addition to being a Hollywood and high fashion darling, the brand has also been enthusiastically embraced by the global art community. In the late 1990s, Matsuda collaborated with famed photographer, Nan Goldin, to produce Goldin Meets Yukio Kobayashi, which received an award from the illustrious Art Directors Club of New York. Every

Matsuda frame is made by hand, using a painstaking process encompassing more than 250 steps from start to completion. This laborious process of handcrafting every Matsuda frame falls to an elite cadre of 13 master artisans based in Sabae, who may invest as many as two years to crafting a single frame.