Hi Jeff, hi John, it’s an absolute pleasure to interview you. Please tell us how you met, how the Dita project was born, and about your background. Basically, we want to learn more about your story.

We met when we were 5 years old in kindergarten and have been friends ever since. The whole idea for the project happened very casually. We were 25, in Southern California surfing, doing photography etc. and just thought it would be interesting to do a fashion eyewear brand specifically for women. We wanted to create frames that our friends would wear. We were hanging out with a lot of creative people – models, stylists, artists – all of them weren’t identifying with the mainstream and wanted something different. That’s why Dita was born.

A lot of time has passed since our first meeting and from our first interview. What has happened in the past 10 years?

A lot has happened in the last ten years, perhaps enough to fill a few pages of your magazine. To make it short and simple, DITA grew tremendously during this period of time, ten years ago we were a small dedicated team based out of the USA. From there DITA expanded to a global team of talented experienced people with bases in Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. DITA acquired the license for Thom Browne and relaunched Christian Roth. We also opened and continue to open quite a few DITA Flagship stores, by the end of 2018 we’ll have 12 flagships globally. In general the last ten years have been a whirlwind of growth which has been a fortunate and humbling experience.

Today, Dita is synonymous with high quality, research in both materials and shapes, glamour and good taste. Do you identify with these?

Yes, of course. Quality is the cornerstone of our brand and of our product. In the end its a doubleedged sword. On one hand the design and detail are extremely high. On the other, the time and energy to produce product at that level borderlines on ridiculous. But for us it’s about pushing ourselves and our craft. It takes a lot of discipline, but we keep pushing.

What are your constant sources of inspiration?

Inspiration for us is more than a list of subjects, it’s a way of looking at the world. Inspiration for us comes from keeping an open mind and observing your surroundings with the appreciation for good design and people with individual style.

See the LYF hard copy for the full interview.