Dorin Frankfurt brings five decades of design to 3D-printed eyewear

Israeli fashion designer Dorin Frankfurt is moving into 3D-printed eyewear through a collaboration with Lajo, the eyewear brand developed by Israeli optical company 3D EYES. At 75, following her solo exhibition at the Ashdod Museum this summer, she is applying five decades of design experience to a new product.

Frankfurt built her clothing brand around design and manufacturing in Tel Aviv, with accessible luxury central to its identity. Her eyewear venture brings her together with optometrist Joseph Hever and entrepreneur Orel Nizri. The collaboration uses 3D printing to produce very small batches, avoid excess inventory and give the designers close control over custom finishes.

The collection comprises four frame designs with influences drawn from literature, words and rock music. EVA takes its cues from feline shapes and Hollywood glamour, while COLETTE has a literary character. LOU draws on an androgynous rock aesthetic, and ZIGGY adopts a more futuristic look associated with stage performance.

Glasses have been part of Frankfurt’s life since fourth grade, when sensitivity to changes between light and shadow made them necessary. Her first frames were purple and cat-eye shaped. Growing up in the 1960s, she felt that her pale complexion, long dark hair and substantial glasses set her apart from the prevailing Israeli ideal of a tanned, natural appearance. Her mother helped her embrace those differences, and she added red lipstick while in high school.

The dark lenses later offered a way to manage social unease and maintain some personal distance. Together with her lipstick, the glasses became a recognizable part of her public appearance. Frankfurt says that distinctive persona developed unintentionally, eventually becoming an image that could readily be turned into a caricature.

Although her work is closely associated with craftsmanship, Frankfurt has long incorporated technology into her business. By 1999, the brand was using digital pattern-making to eliminate fabric waste. It also adopted e-commerce before the practice became established in the local market. The new eyewear project continues that interest in technology as a practical design tool.

Frankfurt sees small-scale, distinctive production as a way to sustain Israel’s design industry and its community of designers. She argues that local businesses should concentrate on accessible luxury rather than basics, a category she believes companies such as Zara already serve well. Her response to consumers facing financial pressure is similarly direct: purchase fewer things.

Preparing her recent exhibition, “Fashion Worker,” meant revisiting an extensive archive that included setbacks alongside achievements. That experience informs her encouragement to designers considering a change later in their careers. “Don’t be afraid to fail,” she says, describing persistence through disappointment as part of her own working life.

With offers continuing to arrive and the eyewear collaboration underway, Frankfurt rejects the idea that older women should withdraw from creative work. She approaches clothing and her home as spaces for ongoing expression, and sees her designs as contributions to other people’s individual style rather than instructions on how they should look.