There are cities that shape brands—and then there is Berlin.
Not as a backdrop, but as a force. A fracture. A constant state of becoming.
In 1996, in an apartment in a newly reunited Berlin, ic! berlin was born into this instability—into a culture defined not by polish, but by possibility. It was a moment when rules were being rewritten in real time, when identity itself felt fluid. From that energy emerged a different kind of object: eyewear not as ornament, but as ideology.
Thirty years later, ic! berlin is still speaking that same language—only now, it speaks it with absolute precision.
To mark its anniversary, the brand unveils a capsule collection that feels less like a celebration and more like a quiet manifesto. A study in continuity and evolution, where past and future collapse into the same frame. Four archival silhouettes—LEIF, WANDA, OLI THE 2ND, and PINA—resurface not as relics, but as living forms, subtly recalibrated for the present.
Alongside them, SODIUM and XENON introduce a sharper, more distilled expression of the brand’s philosophy: reduction as sophistication, engineering as art.
Material remains central. Cold-rolled stainless steel—ic! berlin’s enduring signature—becomes almost immaterial in its lightness, yet exacting in its structure. The screwless hinge, a radical gesture when first introduced, still resists imitation. There is something quietly subversive in that consistency: an insistence that true innovation does not need to shout.
And then there is color.
Transformative Teal moves between blue and green, between stillness and movement. It feels organic, unstable, alive—like Berlin itself.
Applied with restraint and paired with photochromic lenses that respond instinctively to light, the frames become adaptive objects, shifting with the wearer’s environment, dissolving the boundary between function and perception.
But ic! berlin has never existed in isolation from its city.
The anniversary campaign, I See Berlin, unfolds as a portrait not of place, but of perspective. Shot by visual storyteller Tarek Mawad, with digital interventions by Leif Podhajsky, the project traces Berlin through the individuals who inhabit—and redefine—it. Each subject becomes both observer and narrator, offering a fragment of a city that refuses singular definition.
Sven Marquardt appears not only as the iconic gatekeeper of Berghain, but as a custodian of Berlin’s visual memory. Dalad Kambhu translates migration and identity into taste, reshaping the language of cuisine. Nina Pohl constructs conceptual spaces where image and meaning blur. Nunguja Kisalya dissolves genre into atmosphere, sound into texture. Thilo Reich extracts poetry from the overlooked materials of the urban landscape. YoungcChan Moon moves between bodies—physical and digital—reimagining choreography as something fluid, uncontained.
Together, they form a constellation rather than a narrative.
Through their gaze, ic! berlin’s eyewear becomes both literal and symbolic—a device for seeing, but also for questioning how we see. The frames do not impose vision; they sharpen it, frame it, destabilise it.
Perhaps this is the true legacy of ic! berlin: not just the refinement of an object, but the persistence of an attitude. A belief that design can remain uncompromising, that function can be poetic, and that clarity—real clarity—is never fixed.
Thirty years on, ic! berlin does not celebrate certainty.
It celebrates the freedom to keep looking.
IN CONVERSATION WITH DAVIDE LONGHI, GENERAL MANAGER AT IC! BERLIN
That same idea—of continuity without stagnation, of identity as something to be preserved yet constantly redefined—remains central to ic! berlin today.
After 30 years, what still defines ic! berlin at its core?
“Three key elements continue to define the brand: innovation—both technological and material; ingenious creativity—from design through to production; and engineering—highly technical, precise, and uncompromising.”
What does this anniversary collection say about where the brand is heading next?
“It’s about evolution without losing identity,” says Lunghi. “We are building on what makes ic! berlin recognizable, while pushing it further—both technically and culturally. For us, the future is about continuing to innovate while staying true to our independent Berlin spirit.”
“The Anniversary Collection becomes a point of connection between past and future. Performance is expressed through advanced materials, a strong commitment to sustainability, and durability. Technical aesthetics emerge through a clean, minimalist design language. And at its core remains an instinct for unconventional thinking—what Lunghi describes as the desire to push even further the sense of “craziness” that defines ic! berlin.”
If you could define what ic! berlin was 30 years ago and what it is today, which adjective would you use?
“Thirty years ago, disruptive. Today, nonconformist.”
