Persol and Cassina launch limited-edition eyewear for Milan Design Week 2026

Persol and Cassina have made sunglasses feel like a piece of Italian furniture, down to the striped blue acetate, the archive-folder packaging and the valet tray designed by Patricia Urquiola. The limited-edition PO3401S is the kind of accessory that speaks the same language as a well-edited room: clean lines, tactile materials and a finish that looks considered rather than flashy.

The collaboration was unveiled for Milan Design Week 2026, with Cassina placing it within its week-long program and Salone del Mobile running across the city from April 21 to 26. That timing matters. Design Week has become the moment when brands try to prove they understand the codes of contemporary luxury, and this capsule lands squarely in that territory, where eyewear is treated less as a utility and more as a collectible object.

Persol says the PO3401S is issued in a numbered edition of 500 pieces and made in exclusive striped blue acetate. The frame draws on the sculptural elegance of Vico Magistretti’s 905 chair, a reference that gives the sunglasses an architectural edge without tipping into costume. Cassina describes the 905 as an elegant chair made of solid wood and cowhide, originally designed by Magistretti in 1964, produced until 2000 and brought back into the collection in 2018 with the Fondazione Vico Magistretti. That kind of lineage is exactly what makes the crossover feel current: the eyewear borrows the discipline of a piece of furniture that was designed to last.

The details sharpen the point. Each pair comes with packaging inspired by Cassina archive folders, while the accompanying valet tray was designed by Urquiola, Cassina’s art director and one of Milan’s most recognizable design voices. Persol’s UK site lists the frame at £883 including VAT, with delivery estimated for April 21 to 22, putting the launch at the sharper end of the luxury eyewear market, but still in line with the price of a collector-minded design object. Persol creative director Riccardo Pozzoli told WWD that bringing the two brands together felt “natural” and “necessary,” and that is the right read: this is eyewear for people who want their accessories to look as curated as the rooms they live in.