The Original Visual Provocateur: Alain Mikli

I first met Alain Mikli multiple decades ago in his native habitat of Paris, where he was unveiling his latest luscious, head-turning spectacle designs. In the City of Light, where art is woven into the fabric of daily life, his groundbreaking aesthetic stood out immediately yet remained purely crowd-pleasing—and remarkably wearable for those who dared to be different.

Fast-forward through a legacy career in avant-garde eyewear design launched in 1978 to today, when the venerable eyewear-crafting artist has returned to the drawing table from retirement to create a namesake collection with EssilorLuxottica.

The new Alain Mikli Spring-Summer 2026 collection revisits the Maison’s heritage through innovation that is both notably exacting and highly expressive. EssilorLuxottica says that the collection’s foundations remain true to the designer’s vision—“optical correction, grounded in medical-grade precision and visual performance, and distinction revealed through bold silhouettes and an instantly recognizable identity.”

Red is the collection’s signature hue. The frame material is crafted from bio-recycled acetate. And, the Spring-Summer 2026 lineup also marks the introduction of BioPik, a new technological signature from Alain Mikli. This innovation is built on an exclusive five-layer acetate construction, enabling precise control over the placement of colors and patterns, says the company. The result: a crystalline effect with visual depth.

Each BioPik frame includes an integrated NFC chip, providing smartphone access to its digital passport, includes traceability and other features.
Here, we check in with the designer to reveal his uniquely spectacular vision.

Erinn Morgan, Insight Media: Congratulations on a gorgeous, new collection. What was the inspiration behind it?
Alain Mikli: Thank you. I wouldn’t actually speak of “inspiration” in the usual sense.
This collection is not the result of a seasonal idea or a fleeting influence. It is the outcome of long, demanding, and deeply passionate work developed over many years—work that I continue to refine and deepen.

My approach has always been about substance rather than surface, about continuity rather than fashion cycles. I have never associated my work with trends. For me, it is about well-being, about distinction, about the love I have for the people who wear my creations, and above all about the love and passion I have for my craft. That is what drives a slow, rigorous process—one that I have pursued for decades.

EM: Why is now the right time for you to return to eyewear—and design a new collection?
AM: This collection is particularly meaningful to me because it marks the beginning of a new generation of products. I spent 10 years away from the eyewear industry. When EssilorLuxottica invited me to return, it was both a great honor and a real emotional moment—to take back the direction of my work and of my former brand.

It took me more than two years to fully reconnect everything in my mind: the creative dynamics, the processes, the impulses, the passions I had built over nearly 35 years. I needed time to rewire the sensations, to rediscover the rhythm, the intensity, and the scale of this new chapter.

I dedicate this collection first and foremost to the teams who worked alongside me, particularly in Agordo, at the Luxottica factory. Engineers, technicians, eyewear craftsmen—people who shared their patience, their expertise, and their commitment with me, and who rose to every challenge to bring these products to life, and to prepare those that will follow. Because I don’t design “collections;” I develop products that I bring to the market with conviction.

I am happy to hear that you find this collection beautiful. I would say it is more mature and more joyful than the first collections I relaunched two years ago. I feel the passion returning, the emotions I want to transmit through my creations.

My glasses do not suit everyone, and that is intentional. I design for people with character, with presence; people who want to express their independence, their identity, or even reinvent it. The final act of creation happens when someone chooses my frames and wears them with pleasure. That relationship, that harmony with the wearer, is essential.

EM: The collection’s red colorations are so resonant. Red has been a signature, heritage color of the Maison. Why is red also so relevant right now?
AM: Red has always been my colour. Red evokes many things for me: vitality, dynamism, the joy of being alive, affirmation, personality, rigor—this desire to express, strongly and loudly, who we are. Because the blood flowing through our veins is this incredible force.

I created this red material in 1991 in partnership with Mazzucchelli, my historic supplier—a family-owned Italian company and the world reference in acetate.

This red is not a flat, uniform red. I blended textures into it, added transparency with crystal and pearlescent elements so that light can reflect and, in places, be absorbed.

Together with Mazzucchelli, we sought the most delicate version using cut-block technology.

For a long time, I never dared to wear this colour myself, even though I have always loved it. Today, I can no longer wear any other shade. People notice me more. They pay attention, they smile at me, they wink at me. I no longer go unnoticed—in the positive sense of the term. So, it works.

Red is an incredibly beautiful, dynamic colour, and I encourage you to wear it. You may be surprised to see how powerful its effect can be.

EM: The inclusion of the collection’s new BioPik feature is transformational for eyewear. How will this also transform the wearer’s experience?
AM: Biopik is an old dream that I was unable to fulfill before leaving the profession, and that I wanted to revive very quickly with the Luxottica teams—who were initially skeptical. Then, together with my friend Mario, we managed to bring on board people working in the Agordo factory: passionate individuals, willing to step away from routine and try something different.

These people allowed me to turn my dream into reality. Biopik is the beginning of a new adventure, a new way of playing with material.

From the very start of my experience in eyewear, I have loved cellulose acetate. This material is warm. It is not a simple petroleum-based plastic, but a living material. It is like a paper pulp made from wood, wood chips, and cotton. It is a material that lives over time, that evolves, that can be maintained and repaired. A pair of glasses can live on for 30 or 40 years.

It is this love for the material—this passion and this emotion—that led me to learn how to work with it, to sublimate it. Biopik represents a new stage in the sublimation of material: creating inclusions, working with relief, while remaining within an artisanal manufacturing process in Italy. There are no reflections or effects created through injection techniques—everything is done by hand.

When you look closely at the glasses, you can see fragments of material placed with extreme precision, designed to create a new kind of makeup on the face, to draw an expression. We are only at the beginning. With each collection, we refine our craft and go further. There are still 10 years of work ahead of us to perfect this completely unique manufacturing technique, developed entirely within Luxottica’s factories—which, in return, makes this collaboration even more pleasurable, if I may say so.

EM: How does the collection’s Ultra-Wrapping KOK design enhance wearability and durability for enduring wear?
AM: This is the work I had begun before selling my company. I had started this journey, and it was becoming truly sublime when I created a pair of glasses for Jeanne Moreau, using what I call the KOK technique.

The principle behind KOK is to shape the frame by removing the original memory of acetate—which, as I said earlier, is a living material. By nature, this material wants to return to its original state: a sheet. No matter how much you curve it, shape it or form it into a meniscus, this living material, because it has memory, naturally wants to become flat again.

I therefore wanted to learn how to master this phenomenon. Many years ago, we learned how to erase this original memory and replace it with a new one, making it possible to stabilise the material so that it is no longer vulnerable to time, humidity, or heat, regardless of how it is worn.

Together with Luxottica’s engineers, we developed a new manufacturing technique for the KOK system—an enveloping system that allows me to work with different frame curves: base 6, base 8, base 9, and tomorrow base 12—then stabilise these shapes so that they do not collapse back into a flat form, like a crêpe, as has happened with many frames we have seen.

There is an aesthetic dimension to this technique, but there is also a medical one. When producing highly sophisticated lenses, precise measurements are taken—tilt, thickness calculations—to manufacture lenses adapted to the frame size and its geometry. Additional parameters such as dihedral angles, meniscus curvature, and inclination are included. Our objective is to guarantee the long-term stability of these measurements.

When someone has significant visual impairment and must wear glasses from morning to night, for months and years, the frame cannot be allowed to deform over time. The wearer has the right to see clearly when they first receive their glasses—but even more importantly, to continue seeing well over time, thanks to a frame that remains stable and respects all the measurements defined for it.

All these parameters ensure that the lenses are positioned correctly in front of the eye, creating an optically high-performance visual system. This obsession of mine is not purely aesthetic; it is about comfort.

EM: When will you combine these two technologies, Biopik and KOK?
AM: This represents another challenge for me. The question is how we will preserve the Biopik design when applying it to a shell construction.

The first experiments are already underway. The first very simple frames combining the two, Biopik KOK, will be launched in upcoming collections. As we progressively master and learn this dual technology, we will create increasingly extraordinary products: unique pieces, not glasses that look like everyone else’s.

I would like to thank EssilorLuxottica, which provides me with the human and financial resources, the expertise and, above all, the freedom to take on this exceptional challenge.

Podcast Alert! Want more time with Alain Mikli?
Watch this recently posted and highly inspiring podcast from our friends at EYECON[VERSATIONS].