Eco materials for eyewear: the Divel Italia range, from manufacturing to the optical store

For eyewear manufacturers, every material must meet specific requirements: transparency, durability, colour options and compatibility with production processes. Choosing an eco material starts with these same considerations and the properties required of the finished product.

When choosing sunglasses, one of the elements often considered is the color of the lenses. The most common are classic colors such as grey, green or brown, but optical stores offer a wide assortment of colors, including vintage shades, gradients, bicolor lenses, etc.

Eyewear trends for Spring/Summer 2026 place color at the center. From fashion runways to new eyewear collections, the season’s palettes range from bright yellow to soft pink, from natural green to ocean blue and terracotta tones. It’s not just about aesthetics: color also becomes an integral part of both sun lenses and prescription lenses, allowing a perfect balance of style, visual comfort, and protection.

Our Bologna headquarters will be closed on December 24th, 31st, and January 2nd for the holidays.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2026!

Occhi sulla strada, sempre.

Because driving well also means... seeing well.

Driving is not just a matter of pedals, priorities and nerves at traffic lights. It is also (and especially) a matter of the eyes. Whether it's a traffic circle with a thousand exits, blinding headlights on a rainy night, or the classic low sun hitting you full in the face as you leave work, your eyesight is constantly being tested.

And let's face it: you don't have to be a driver to realize that bad eyesight while driving is dangerous, stressful--and exhausting, too.

Everyday drivers know this: you tire easily, you blink more than usual, you tend to "squint" to focus. And if you're maybe even past 40 (hello presbyopia, welcome to the club), things get complicated. Dashboard, mirror, GPS, signs, pedestrians--a constant change of focus. Not easy.

In Divel Italia’s Progressive lens portfolio, there is always the right lens for your customer because each product is made with innovative software that recreates the corrective power on the surface while minimising aberrations. Each progressive lens is designed for each specific patient need. Divel Italia progressive lenses are divided into:

• TOP CUSTOM
• EVERY DAY
• DYNAMIC

Warm weather is on its way, so protecting our eyes will again be a more pressing matter. Because, let’s face it, as we’ve said many times, even if our eyes should be protected by sunglasses all year round, the arrival of the spring sun is a pleasant reminder that we really do need to filter out radiation from the sun.

What trends can we expect in eyewear for the Spring/Summer 2025 season?

With the arrival of spring, eyewear becomes an absolute protagonist among fashion accessories, not just as a necessity but above all as a style statement—a way to stand out and tell your story in the details.

The Spring/Summer 2025 runways highlighted a variety of styles, from the refined, thin frames, such as the ones proposed by Fendi, to the oversized, bold models inspired by the 70s and 90s, as seen from Dior.

A nod to Y2K fashion is also a must, with brightly colored, geometrically shaped shield frames dominating the scene.

Alongside style, a focus on sustainability is increasingly gaining ground, including recycled, bio-based materials and responsible production processes, while technological innovations are paving the way for smart glasses that combine style and functionality.

Why do eyewear lenses get scratched? How do they get damaged?

Before answering this question, we need to ask ourselves why the lenses got damaged. Environmental factors? Physical factors? Was it because of low-quality coatings?

Was it the coating that wore off too quickly? Or did the lens go bad because we left our glasses on the car dashboard in the scorching sun?

It used to be that lenses were made of actual glass. Despite what you may think, glass lenses were much more resistant to scratches than modern plastic ones, but, since glass lenses are much more fragile, our being careful not to drop them on the ground likely meant that we were also more careful in how we handled our glasses generally.

Are you tired of feeling like a fish out of water every time you walk into an optician’s shop? Do you feel overwhelmed by terms like “monofocal”, “bifocal” and “progressive” and aren’t sure what they mean? Choosing the right type of lens for your vision needs can mean the difference between having crystal clear vision or eyestrain. In this article, we’ll walk you through the main types of lenses for eyewear. Let’s see if we can’t give you some greater clarity.

We use sunglasses all the time to protect our eyes from the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays and improve our vision in bright conditions. All the same, we may not know how they are made or what materials they’re composed of. However, the choice of lens material is crucial in determining their safety, visual effectiveness, comfort level and, last but not least, their resistance to wear and tear and general durability over time.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at some of the main materials used to make sunglasses lenses, analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of each solution.

It would be wrong to say that the most expensive lens will definitely be the best lens for you. To summarize, in order to choose the right progressive lens, you need to consider the following factors: - PRODUCTION QUALITY OF THE PROGRESSIVE LENS (e.g. top-of-the-line, mid-range, or standard) - CORRECTIVE POWER and THICKNESS - COATINGS APPLIED

Looking forward to the final to be held in Paris on Saturday, September 21, Divel Italia is pleased to announce that it has just been nominated for the Silmo D'or 2024 award with the “Elements” collection for the VISION category.

Your eyes express. Your lenses reveal. Tell your story with Divel! Divel presents a new campaign for MIDO 2023.

The campaign is inspired by a well-known Italian expression, “gli occhi parlano” (lit. “eyes speak”).

Summer is almost here! So get ready to accessorize with your favorite pair of sunglasses. Protecting your eyes against UV rays is important. Why not do it with some super trendy lenses? With Divel Italia can you have sunglasses with graduated lenses in any color you like!

In conjunction with Earth Day, Divel Italia has set a goal of conveying our commitment to the crucial issues of sustainability and the environment. At Divel Italia, in our continued pursuit of these efforts, we’ve recently developed a new material for our GREEN LINE collection: POLYCARBONATE Eco, an extremely lightweight, versatile product that is ideally suited to meeting your every need in terms of quality and environmental sustainability, because it is made using recycled material and mass balance.

Out of our Divel Sports lab come our Sport Single vision and Progressive lenses, a new line of graduated lenses designed for athletes. Available also in photochromic, polarized and mirrored versions, and with all types of coatings, to properly protect both the athlete and the eyewear itself. Lenses can be customized for functional purposes based on the needs of the athlete and of the sport. The color of a sports lens improves your vision by reducing glare and optimizing contrasts.

Our eyesight plays a fundamental role in how we see the world around us. With our eyes we look, we examine, we understand, we get excited, we love. Its importance must not be underestimated when it comes to sports. For outdoor sports, protecting our eyes from the sun’s harmful UV rays is essential. But we also need to protect our eyes from other external agents.

The material selected for a lens is fundamental, as it determines both comfort and clarity of vision.

What’s the best frame for progressive lenses

Choosing a frame for progressive lenses can be tricky, because you need both visual comfort and the ability to adapt well to the different vision zones along the progression corridor (near, intermediate and far). So is there a perfect frame for progressive lenses? Because the progression corridor includes near, intermediate and far-vision zones, it’s clear how important it is to ensure there’s enough space to include all these zones. With the progressive lens centered within the frame, the space between the center of the pupil and the lower edge of the frame should be as long as possible. If not, the progressive lens can become uncomfortable and may not give you the visual performance you need.

How do you pick the best frame for your progressive lenses?

The Divel Milano prescription lens production laboratory has undergone continuous upgrades in recent years and is one of the **most innovative and automated **in Italy.

It boasts state-of-the-art machinery, careful and mechanised quality control, and a high-speed robotic bagging machine that will be installed by the end of the year.

The laboratory is equipped with innovative generators capable of processing lens surfaces using a diamond tool in five different directions (three linear axes and two rotational axes), creating complex geometries with a precision of 3 microns. This makes it possible to reach the most complicated areas and obtain better surfaces.

These generators can be used to create monofocal, bifocal and progressive lenses, which are compensated and recalculated, i.e. subject to power corrections.

Nowadays, there is widespread awareness of the dangers of direct exposure of our eyes to sunlight. This is why we often hear about glasses with UV protection in their lenses. When we are exposed to sunlight for extended periods of time, we risk damage to the eyes in the form of disorders such as cataracts, macular degeneration, pinguecula, keratoconjunctivitis and photokeratitis, which, in the most severe cases, can lead to temporary loss of vision. By definition, sunglasses are designed to protect us from harmful solar radiation, but it must be said that not all types of sunglasses are fitted with lenses that block 100% of UV radiation.

At Divel Italia, we have recently installed new equipment at our Milan production lab to further strengthen our production of prescription lenses.

What is L’una Aliena, you say? It’s our unique, personalized version of our top-of-the-line progressive lens, Aliena. What makes L’una Aliena different from other progressive lenses?

What is Digital Eye Strain?

Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) is also known as Digital Eye Strain (DES), and both terms point to how prolonged exposure to the light emitted by the screens of our devices can be a major contributor to eye strain. There are many devices in the home or the office that can be responsible for DES — including phones, televisions, e-readers and, above all, desktop and notebook computers — if we spend too much time watching TV or playing video games.

The category of the lens depends on a value called Visible Light Transmission (VLT) or Tv (transmittance value). This is a measure of how much light the lens lets your eyes pass through and is expressed as a percentage.

What is an eye patch? An eye patch is an accessory used to cover one or both eyes to protect them from direct exposure to light. It can be made of various materials such as cotton, silk, Lycra or other soft fabrics, and can have different types of fasteners, such as elastics, Velcro or laces to tie. Eye patches can be purchased in pharmacies, travel-accessory stores, or online.

What is an eye patch used for? Eye patches are accessories that can be used in a variety of contexts.

Divel Italia has been nominated for the Silmo d’or 2023 with the Re-live lens!

RE-LIVE is an ecological lens created to improve our carbon footprint by generating fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to not using renewable energy. RE-LIVE is our new, sustainable demo-lens made from 50% certified recycled materials obtained from mixed polyester waste.

As the name implies, corrective lenses, also known as “prescription” lenses, are used in eyewear in order to correct defects in the vision of the wearer.

Vision training? Fitness for the eyes? Our eyes are supported by a fairly complex set of muscles, so it is actually normal that these muscles need to be kept in shape. You may already have heard of certain exercises for the eyes, or orthoptic exercises, but you may not know exactly what we’re talking about unless you’ve already had a need for such exercises.

It’s often said that our eyes work a bit like a camera lens. Although digital imaging technology has, in many respects, surpassed the abilities of the human eye — such as in light sensitivity — corrective lenses are, in fact, based on how the human eye functions.

In response to market demand, in addition to reducing the environmental impact of our production, Divel Italia now produces lenses and solar filters using increasing percentages of organic materials and environmentally sustainable byproducts.

After the various experiments and other projects in 2019 focused on lens waste and post-production disposal, in 2020 Divel Italia released our first environmentally sustainable lens. What sustainable materials are used to make sunglasses?

A newborn’s vision is very limited because, obviously, their visual system, like all their other bodily systems, is not yet fully developed.

The retina, in particular, and the visual connections in the brain (which process images) are still growing, which is why vision at birth is still blurry.

The muscles of the eye are also not yet coordinated, so a newborn’s eyes often cross in a funny way, and the ability to focus on an object is lost.

Photo-selective lenses are recommended for people who need high levels of protection for their eyes, and for anyone with eye-related disorders (the latter should first consult an eye specialist).

Brief preamble: this article is for informational purposes only. For diagnoses, prescriptions, and suggestions, by all means consult your trusted professional.

Adequately protecting our eyes can certainly help prevent the sort of damage that can be caused by radiation with wave- lengths of below 400 nm (i.e. UV rays).

We are pleased to announce the opening of our new branch DIVEL IBERIA SL in Spain. This important step represents DIVEL ITALIA's continued commitment to internationalisation and global expansion. With Spain, Divel's foreign branches rise to seven: France, Romania, Albania, Egypt, Morocco and China.

There’s something strange about the way we take care of ourselves in the sun. SPF 50 on our face, a hat, shade whenever possible. But what about our eyes? We often leave them exposed, convinced that any dark lens will do the job.

It won’t. Almost never.

Beyond the mask

Between the pursuit of sporting comfort and the search for a distinct visual identity, Fusion Mask takes shape: a high-performance ski goggle that redefines the meeting point between aesthetics and technology. A 100% Made in Italy project, born from the collaboration between Divel Italia, Lapo and Neon, three Italian excellences united by a common vision: transforming technical performance into an expression of style. Born from the continuous dialogue between optical research, design, and sports engineering, Fusion Mask translates the energy of sport into a sophisticated language made of surfaces, reflections, and details. Each component becomes a mark of identity: the lens as a visual signature, the frame as an expression of character.

Divel Italia introduces ARIA, a next-generation anti-reflective coating that redefines the vision experience. The result of extensive research, ARIA was made possible by using artificial intelligence to help determine the best combination of optical performance and style.

ARIA is a major step forward in the field of anti-reflective coatings. Artificial intelligence was used to find the ideal combination of clear vision and pure aesthetics, while optimizing every single layer of the coating itself. The result is a lens with reduced residual reflection and a delicate green hue that minimizes glare and maximizes visual comfort. In addition to its super anti-reflective action, ARIA features a series of technical characteristics that increase the efficacy and durability of the coating, including scratch resistance, a water and oil-repellent effect to prevent water spots and fingerprints, and an anti-static treatment to keep away dust and other particles.

Accommodative support (AS) lenses, more commonly known as anti-fatigue lenses, are an innovative solution designed to help our eyes better handle the strain that can result from long hours working at a digital screen, reading, or doing other activities that require prolonged visual effort at close range.

Nearsightedness is a condition that occurs mainly from school age, from the age of 4/6, and continues to evolve until the end of development.

The use of this type of lens can reduce the aggravation of the visual defect. Under no circumstances will it be able to reverse myopia.

In recent years, due to the ever-increasing use of tablets and mobile phones by young people, myopia has increased significantly in the world’s population and particularly in the very young. Numerous studies estimate that by 2050 at least 50 per cent of the world’s population will suffer from myopia, 10 per cent of them in a severe form (currently an estimated 30 per cent of the world’s population suffers from myopia).

Buying corrective eyewear can be tricky because first you have to have your vision checked carefully by a professional, and then you have to pick frames that are suitable for the corrective power and the coatings you need to suit your lifestyle.

Generally speaking, as a consumer you tend to focus mainly on choosing your frames from among the great many brands and countless styles and shapes. Often, the brand of prescription lenses takes a back seat, and most of us just rely on the recommendation of our optician.

But more attentive customers are familiar with many of the brands that produce corrective lenses, such as us here at Divel Italia.

If you’re in the less informed camp but are curious to find out the brand of your prescription lenses, you can start by looking for the markings on the lens.

Shield sunglasses have ebbed and flowed in popularity over the years, but they were especially iconic in the 80s and 90s. At that time, this style of eyewear was a true fashion statement.

The shield design, with its wraparound shape and ample coverage, was a favorite not only among athletes, but also of the fashion-conscious and anyone looking for a distinctive look.

Our Bologna Office will close on the afternoon of 24 and 31 December. Closed on 27 December all day. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Where do you dispose of old eyewear? (And what about the lenses?)

We might throw away our glasses for a variety of reasons:

• a change of vision needs that calls for new lenses, which may lead us to change the frames at the same time;

• a desire for a new look, which leads to replacing frames that may still be usable;

• damaged frame or lenses, so you may decide to replace both.

As we age, typically by around the age of 45, we can begin to develop age-related farsightedness (presbyopia), which makes it difficult to focus on nearby objects.

Our office lenses are the ideal choice for anyone experiencing this common vision issue. Also known as degressive lenses, office lenses are designed specifically for those who work long hours in front of a computer.

What are the treatments applicable on sunglass lenses

Treatments applied on sunglass lenses can be functional and/or aesthetic; in the first case, they perform the function of protecting the lens from external agents that can damage it or hinder vision, in the second case they also perform a beautification function.

What sunglass lens treatments are available from Divel Italia?

Bags under the eyes are very common and tend to worsen as we age. Aging, lack of sleep, improper hydration, genetic predisposition and lifestyle are just some of the major factors in this aesthetic issue, which can come to negatively impact a person's self-esteem.

There are many solutions to reduce or eliminate bags under our eyes, including good daily practices, natural home remedies, and surgical or other professional treatments. Let's see what they are.

One of the main concerns for anyone who wears glasses every day is that your corrective lenses will get scratched and ruined, which can be a significant expense if you have to pay to replace those lenses. Coatings have been developed for organic lenses to help increase the durability of eyewear.

Summer is on our doorstep, and the sun is shining for longer! It’s important to protect our eyes from sunlight. With photochromic corrective lenses, the lens adapts to changes in lighting conditions. But how do they work? When exposed to UV radiation, such as sunlight, photochromic corrective lenses undergo a reversible chemical reaction that causes them to darken. When no longer exposed to UV light, they gradually return to their initial state of transparency.

The high-energy blue light emitted by the screens of our computers, phones and other digital devices can, over time, be harmful to our eyes.

This is something we will all have heard by now, so many of us, especially those who spend long hours in front of a computer, will have already gone to our optician to buy glasses with blue-block lenses.

Using lenses designed to filter out this blue light, like our Blue Natural lenses, can offer a series of benefits for our eyes in terms of vision comfort, sleep quality and the overall health of our eyes, especially now that we are so frequently exposed to one screen or another. Here are just a few of the benefits:

Lens coatings serve to protect both the lenses and the person wearing them. By blocking certain types of light as they pass through the lens, we can enhance lenses in terms of look, vision, and overall quality.

Nowadays, people are generally aware of the danger of direct exposure of our skin to the sun's rays.

Light is typically understood as that part of the electromagnetic spectrum that's visible to the human eye. It's an electromagnetic wave emitted by the sun and filtered by the atmosphere before reaching the ground. The wavelengths of visible light, i.e. the distance between the peaks in a series of waves, ranges from 400 nm to 700 nm. In addition to visible light, there is invisible radiation at either end of the light spectrum beyond which the human eye is unable to see.

In addition to ultraviolet radiation, at wavelengths below 390 nm, infrared radiation, at wavelengths above 760 nm, and high-energy visible⁠ (HEV) light, also known colloquially as blue light, can also be dangerous for our eyes. HEV light is a blue-violet light at wavelengths between 400 nm and 500 nm, so it falls on the spectrum of light that the human eye can see.

Establishing healthy habits is essential to maintaining good vision health. Here are 10 tips to follow, even if you aren’t experiencing any deficiencies in vision.

In response to market demand, Divel Italia, in addition to reducing the environmental impact of our production site, now produces lenses and solar filters using increasing percentages of organic materials and environmentally sustainable by-products.

The material selected for a lens is fundamental, as it determines both comfort and clarity of vision.

To see clearly, you need the lenses of your glasses to be clean and in good condition at all times. This is why you should clean your eyewear daily using a soft cloth and water, cleanser, or other special cleaning solution or disinfectant recommended by your optician. Of course, the performance and durability of a lens also depends on the coatings that are applied by your optician of choice. So how do you choose the right coating for your lenses?

Put your glasses on. Take your glasses off… Who among us hasn’t found themselves doing this at least once? Or has seen someone else doing it? Sooner or later that day comes. The day on which, all of a sudden, you have a hard time reading text on your phone. Or the words in a book start playing tricks on you, or product labels seem like they’re way too small. Sure, you can move whatever you’re trying to read a bit farther from your face, but are your arms long enough? Not to mention that trying to ignore these symptoms can cause headaches and excessive eye strain. So the time has come to admit that you’re showing the first signs of presbyopia.

There are a few good habits we can adopt so that we don’t damage our lenses and to avoid worsening our vision. When our glasses are properly centered and straight, for example, we know we’re getting the best support for our vision and that our lenses and frames will last a long time.

Following research into lens waste conducted at the University of Palermo, designers Federica Ditta and Cristiano Pesca turned their attention to the various potential uses for this waste. They looked at both rejected lenses that failed to pass quality testing and excess material left over after shaping the lenses.

Why it’s important to see your optometrist regularly? You should get your eyes checked more frequently if you’re in an at-risk group. But what does that mean exactly? We’re not just talking about people who already have vision problems. There are a number of sub-categories of at-risk people that go beyond just those who already use corrective lenses.

There are various sports in which your vision plays a crucial role.

Take, for example, sports like billiards, **golf **and shooting sports. Here at Divel, we can provide corrective lenses for eyewear that give you the high levels of performance you need.

We’ve likely all been told from a young age that we should eat our carrots because they’re great for our eyes.

Our parents would try all the tricks they could think of to make us eat them. Cooked carrots on their own or together with potatoes, blended up in a pasta sauce, or pureed in a veggie soup. Here in Italy, about the only carrots some kids would eat was when they were chopped up with onion and celery and sauteed to make a Bolognese meat sauce, because then they would get lost in all the ground beef.

_ “Focus on what you love. It’s you!”_ is the slogan for Divel Italia’s new campaign for Mido 2025.

The campaign invites you to look at what you love in this world, using Divel Italia sunglasses and prescription lenses, of course.

By focusing closely on what you love, you will soon realize how important it is to focus on the most important thing of all: yourself.