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Tokyo, 1649. Increasingly concerned about the lavish styles of the middle classes, the Japanese shogunate issued a set of sumptuary laws regulating the clothing of every strata of the Japanese class system. The chōnin, Japan’s middle classes, were banned from donning the elaborately embroidered kimonos of the samurai warrior classes and in response, adopted a style that comes to be known as iki, roughly translated as “refined spontaneity”. Iki described a form that belied its outwardly simple appearance, one whose craftsmanship and opulent flourishes were known only to the wearer. Hued in a rich emerald green, Akoni’s new Autumn/Winter 2024 models embody the secretive luxury of iki expressed in limpid Swiss design. For Akoni, sophistication is evinced through the use of high-quality Japanese materials: cellulose acetate for their tinted lenses and hinges and screws made from the finest titanium. Akoni allows the wearer to participate in this nearly 400-year-old tradition of aesthetic pragmatism, disguising the luxury that lies within. Matteo Pini

All glasses by AKONI Eyewear.

Photography: Sara Zanoni / Styling: Adriana Pinto de Azevedo