“We see our Optima collection as our Akoni design lab, serving a rôle that is similar to that which a couture collection plays today for a Paris fashion house,” explains Akoni designer Jeff Solorio. Fashion houses rely on couture to help them refresh their palette, push boundaries and experiment with new techniques, fabrics and concepts—while always retaining their distinctive heritage of true craftsmanship. Akoni’s Optima is meant to allow us that same freedom to grow. Here, we start with iconic frames and try out the newest ideas, materials and breakthroughs that are exciting us, pushing ourselves and our partners to new and often edgy limits. And the new Stargazer frame makes clear the “power that the Optima philosophy of freedom allows Akoni’s design team.