LOS ANGELES—Designer Blake Kuwahara along with Jeff Press of Morgenthal Frederics are bringing the East and West Coasts together in their limited-edition eyewear capsule collection launching in spring 2018.

The focus of this collection is the combination of the iconic Morgenthal Frederics “Lifesaver” style with Kuwahara’s signature “frame within a frame” construction. Each model is handcrafted in Japan in four acetate combinations in a limited edition of 100 pieces.

“Jeff and I are both on the board of the Eyewear Designers of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (edCFDA),” said Kuwahara. “One of our initiatives is to encourage eyewear designers within the CFDA to work in a collaborative and supportive way. We thought, ‘What could be a better example of that than designing a collection together.’”

The new style features an inner “Lifesaver” frame set within the contours of a separate, complementary outer frame. The proprietary lamination process takes two months to seamlessly fuse the two silhouettes and an additional three months to properly mill, sculpt and polish the frames, all by hand.

“The Lifesaver is the most iconic style in the Morgenthal Frederics collection, so creating a version with Blake has once again transformed the style for a new audience, which is very exciting for us,” said Press.

Kuwahara added, “We wanted the frames to exhibit harmony and tension between opposing shapes and ideas by blending the technique of my ‘frame within frame’ construction with the distinctive shape of the Lifesaver.”

Richard Mewha, president of Fade To Grey, the distributing company for Blake Kuwahara Eyewear said, “Morgenthal Frederics is such a logical choice for our second collaboration. They represent the ultimate in luxury optical retail, and are purveyors of handcrafted buffalo horn and acetate objects d’arts. The Lifesaver is such an iconic piece, that we jumped on the opportunity to recreate it in our combined vision.”

The four-piece set is available exclusively through Blake Kuwahara Eyewear retailers and all Morgenthal Frederics locations.