The collaboration between a Berlin photographer and nightclub bouncer with Italian eyewear brand, AF Reflect, is called “Nachts” — German for “at night.” And it was partially inspired by artistic work that the photographer in question, Mischa Fanghaenel, has done documenting the German capital’s legendary nightlife.
But no, Fanghaenel told WWD, he does not wear sunglasses at night. “I have a tinted visor on my Vespa helmet,” Fanghaenel says, with a laugh. “Does that count?”
Fanghaenel has been a photographer for around 20 years, but only started to promote his more artistic work relatively recently. The latest in a series of exhibitions of his pictures of Berlin nightlife, also called “Nachts,” opened at the city’s branch of photography museum Fotografiska in late January and will run until early March. Fanghaenel also happens to be a bouncer working at the city’s Berghain club, arguably the most famous techno-heavy nightspot in the world.
The Moscow-born, Berlin-bred photographer says he became involved in designing the eyewear collection thanks to a friendship with AF Reflect’s Andrea Pisano, a regular face at Berghain.
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Pisano founded AF Reflect in 2018 together with Francesco del Garda and, according to their website, they “set out to create an eyewear brand inspired by underground club culture…where art and sound are constantly merging.” The sunglasses are all made in a family-run laboratory near Milan, using high-end acetate and Zeiss lenses. They retail from around 200 euros.
A previous AF Reflect collaboration in June 2024 was with the U.K.’s Houghton Festival, a summer event held at an 18th-century manor in the Norfolk countryside that one magazine has described as a “five-day, 24-hour music festival that has high society and hardcore ravers coming together in perfect harmony.”
“I’m no sunglass designer, I had a lot of help from Andrea,” Fanghaenel sain in explaining how the AF Reflect collaboration worked for him. “And I also wear glasses myself, so it was a subject close to my heart.”
The pair spent time looking at the whole AF Reflect range and then worked further on some of Fanghaenel’s favorites. There were so many ideas, Fanghaenel explains, that it was hard to concentrate on just one. “It was an exciting learning curve,” he continues. “I think just seeing how the process works was simultaneously the most exciting and the most challenging thing about this.”
The result is an ovoid frame in a vampiric red and black that the AFT Reflect press release says represents a “nocturnal energy…where shadows dominate until a moment when a red light pierces through.”
As for Fanghaenel himself, he says he’s really enjoyed seeing people’s reaction to the sunglasses. “Because I think they reflect the night, in the way I know it. They [the sunglasses] are classic but at the same time fresh and new,” he suggests.
As for whether there will be more collaborations like this, that information must remain as oblique as Berghain’s infamous door policy. “That’s still a secret,” is all Fanghaenel can say for now.
