TANAKA Eyewear
Crafted from Paper, Built to Endure
In an East London atelier, Gow Tanaka is building eyewear around an increasingly uncommon idea: one frame, one maker, one pair of hands from beginning to end.
Made from compressed paper composite and designed to change rather than remain pristine, TANAKA Eyewear treats ageing, repair and even damage as part of the object’s story
Eyewear has always framed the face, but few designers arrive at that understanding by way of a 25-year career in international fashion hairstyling.
For Gow Tanaka, those decades spent working with models, photographers, make-up artists and stylists became an education in proportion. Hair taught him how a line could alter the perception of a face; eyewear eventually became another way of drawing that line. Today, from his atelier in East London, the Japan-born designer-maker creates every TANAKA Eyewear frame himself, from the initial cut to shaping, finishing, assembly and final fitting.
There is no production line and no division between designer and manufacturer. TANAKA describes the approach as single-author eyewear: an object passes through one pair of hands from beginning to end. And with production limited to approximately 48 frames a year, that philosophy is quite literal.
Eyewear Made From Paper
Perhaps the most unusual element of TANAKA Eyewear is its material. Rather than conventional acetate, the frames are produced from Richlite compressed paper composite, manufactured from densely compressed paper fibres and phenolic resin. FSC-certified and recycled material is used within its production, creating a substance that feels somewhere between wood, stone and an engineered industrial material. It is dense, warm to the touch and remarkably stable.
Most importantly for Tanaka, it changes.
“The frames I create are made to age with you. The more you wear them, the more they become your own. I want my work to get better with age. I hope I do too.”
Frames are finished with oil and wax rather than sealed beneath a surface designed to remain permanently untouched. With wear, the material gradually develops areas of lighter and darker colour, marks and tonal variation.
Instead of treating this as deterioration, TANAKA makes it part of the design. The frame is made once. Time continues the work.
A new Patina frame and one worn for two years can therefore look markedly different. One represents the maker’s finished object; the other records what happened after it left his hands. It is an approach closer to a well-worn leather object, wooden tool or mechanical watch than disposable fashion.
Cut, Shaped and Returned to the Hand
Compressed paper composite also dictates how TANAKA frames have to be made.
Unlike acetate, the material cannot simply be heat-formed during the final fitting. Hinge positions, angles, recesses and proportions therefore need to be resolved during construction. TANAKA combines precise machining with extensive hand finishing, repeatedly assembling, checking, dismantling and refining each frame at the bench.
Even the surface decoration reflects this meeting of Japanese influence and contemporary manufacturing.
Lines inspired by karesansui, the raked patterns of Japanese dry landscape gardens, are cut into the material before being refined by hand.
The result is distinctive without needing decoration for decoration’s sake.
There is no oversized branding competing with the architecture of the frame. Instead, weight, edge, proportion and surface become the identity.
Type-I and Type-RO
The first TANAKA release is built around two silhouettes.
Type-I places a rounded lens shape beneath a strong horizontal upper line, creating an immediately recognisable contrast between circle and structure.
Type-RO takes a firmer direction, with a more angular contour designed to interact with the cheekbone and architecture of the face.
Both demonstrate Tanaka’s background in face framing. Rather than treating a spectacle purely as an isolated object, he considers what its lines do once placed onto a person, whether they widen, sharpen, soften or redirect the way facial proportions are perceived.
Each is available through two distinct expressions of the TANAKA concept.
Black Archive is the permanent collection, individually made to order in wide or narrow sizing and adjusted to its wearer.
Patina is the numbered made-to-measure line, produced according to the wearer’s measurements and limited to 150 examples of each design.
Repair as Part of the Object
Perhaps the most compelling part of TANAKA’s philosophy begins after the frame has been sold.
Every piece is serialised and documented, with fitting, finishing and future servicing remaining connected to the atelier. The five-year warranty is supported by adjustment, hinge care, alignment and assessment over time, while a service record follows the frame throughout its life.
Even the serial number is conceived differently. It belongs to the owner rather than the physical frame, remaining with that person through adjustment, restoration or remaking.
Damage is approached with the same philosophy. Rather than attempting to erase every trace of an accident, selected restorations follow a kintsugi-informed process, drawing on the Japanese idea that repair can become part of an object’s history instead of something that must be disguised.
A chip, break or damaged section may therefore remain visible through its restoration.
Tanaka’s intention is not to return the object to an artificial state of newness, but to keep it in use.
Objects Authored Once
That emphasis on longevity runs through almost everything TANAKA does.
Each frame is accompanied by its documentation and presented in an individual Kyoto-made V-cut box, together with a leather case produced by the same artisan. Even the final packaging is sealed using Tanaka’s Japanese inkan, or personal seal.
The philosophy has already gained recognition beyond eyewear. TANAKA’s Patina as Performance project won the Heritage & Craft category at the Surface Design Awards 2026, recognising an approach in which material ageing becomes an active part of design rather than something to prevent.
It makes TANAKA Eyewear difficult to place within conventional definitions of luxury. Its value is not built around a visible logo, seasonal scarcity or decoration. It comes from authorship, material, time and the possibility that an object can be maintained rather than replaced.
Gow Tanaka spent decades learning how a small change in line can transform a face. Now he applies that understanding to an object intended to remain there for years.
Made once. Finished by time.
About Tanaka Eyewear
TANAKA Eyewear is the work of Osaka-born, London-based designer and maker Gow Tanaka. Before creating eyewear, Tanaka spent nearly three decades studying how people are seen: first through hair, then through years of session work in fashion and advertising alongside photographers, editors, models and stylists. That background still shapes his approach today, with every frame considered in relation to the architecture of the face rather than as an object in isolation.
From 2016, Tanaka began making headpieces, combs and small structures in metal and wood between assignments, combining digital cutting with handwork at the bench. In 2022, he began creating frames from scratch and found the material that would define the house: compressed paper composite, valued for the way it cuts, holds an edge and develops depth through use.
TANAKA Eyewear remains intentionally personal in scale and authorship. Each frame is made by Tanaka himself in East London and recorded by serial as part of an evolving archive rather than simply as inventory. The brand’s philosophy is perhaps best summed up in its own words: “The frame is not added to the face. It becomes part of its architecture.”
Read more about this brand on TEF Magazine or visit their website.
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