NATIVE SONS EYEWEAR

Native Sons is a Japanese eyewear label built around the idea of postwar renewal. It draws on the thinkers, makers and doers who rebuilt the world after conflict, and it was started by Tommy O'Gara, an eyewear veteran born in South Dakota and raised in Nebraska who has lived in Japan for over four decades. Firmament credits Neighborhood's Shinsuke Takizawa as a co-creator.

Every frame starts as a hand-drawn sketch and is made at the company's Tokyo headquarters and its own factories in Sabae and Fukui. Frames use plant-based cellulose acetate or hand-polished titanium, with Shima Optics lenses. Firmament estimates each pair passes through 144 hands. The brand is part of The Light Co. Ltd., which O'Gara founded in 2013.