Article: Design and Eyewear: Why at TARIAN, Form Always Follows the Face
Design and Eyewear: Why at TARIAN, Form Always Follows the Face
In eyewear, design is often confused with style. A shape that follows a trend. A silhouette that signals a season. At TARIAN, it means something else.
Design begins with material, not form
Most eyewear brands start with a shape. The material comes later.
At TARIAN, the process is inverted. Jérémy Miklitarian always begins with the material — the acetate, the colour palette, the way a shade behaves in light — before any form takes shape.
« I always start with the materials and the colour palette before moving on to the design. »
Almost half of the acetates used by TARIAN are developed exclusively for the brand. Colours, depths and nuances found nowhere else. The material is not chosen to fill a shape. It is the point of departure for every design decision.
This is what distinguishes a TARIAN frame from a frame that merely looks good. The material has its own identity — its own way of holding light, its own relationship with the face it sits on.
The face as the real brief
Designing an eyewear frame is an exercise in understanding anatomy. The bridge. The temple width. The weight. The angle of fit. These are not secondary considerations — they are the design brief.
Jérémy Miklitarian has worn prescription glasses since the age of eight. He understands, from lived experience, what it means to carry a frame on a face every day. What works. What fails. What a well-fitted frame feels like — and what it feels like when one doesn't.
Every TARIAN model is thought through this lens. The AXIS hinge — screwless, tested 30,000 times — distributes weight evenly across the frame, eliminating pressure points. Comfort is not an afterthought. It is embedded in the design from the first sketch.
« The frame is there. The gaze, however, becomes free. »
Ceramics and the cross-disciplinary eye
Jérémy's parallel practice in ceramics directly informs his approach to eyewear. Ceramics is a discipline of material — of understanding volume, texture and surface. It demands precision and rewards patience.
This sensibility transfers. The attention to three-dimensional form. The understanding of how a shape reads in space. The instinct for what a material wants to become. Two practices, one design language.
Designed to last, not to trend
Each TARIAN model is produced in a numbered edition of 500 pieces. Not as a marketing device — as a design commitment. Small editions mean full attention to every frame. No compromise on material, finish or fit.
The shapes are not seasonal. The colours are chosen for their longevity and depth. A TARIAN frame is designed to be worn today and kept for years.
Explore the collections — LE VESTIAIRE, LA SIGNATURE, LE TITANE, LA CROISIÈRE.
Designed in Paris. Handcrafted in Italy. 500 numbered pieces per model.