Eyeballs Eyewear in Paddington is a Sydney stockist of Dita glasses and sunglasses, and we hold the titanium optical collection alongside the sun models — the Mach series, the Grandmasters and pieces from Dita Lancier — in more than one lens option. You can try any of them on at 342 Oxford Street, ten minutes from the Sydney CBD, open seven days.
Designed in Los Angeles, made in Sabae
Dita was founded in Los Angeles in 1995 and has manufactured in Sabae, Japan, from the beginning. Sabae is the small city in Fukui prefecture where titanium eyewear was effectively invented, and the house is open about what that involves: a single frame can pass through more than two hundred separate production steps before it is finished.
That shows up in the places you feel rather than see. The weight of a titanium temple in the hand, the click of a hinge that has been cut rather than pressed, the way a nose pad arm holds an adjustment instead of springing back to where it was. The materials sit at the top of what is available — Japanese titanium, Japanese zyl acetate, 18 karat gold and white gold plating on the hardware, and mineral or high-grade coated and polarised lenses depending on the model.
The Mach series, the Grandmasters and the rest
The Mach series is the one people search for, and it takes its language from cars, boats and aircraft. The Mach-Three is squarer than its tear-drop siblings, with knurled titanium detailing and titanium nose pads. The Mach-Four adds rubber nose pads and etches Dita's diamond pattern into the titanium rims. The Mach-Five is the classic aviator of the family, identified by a titanium mesh nose bridge modelled on a car grille. The Mach-Six is the most engineered, with a forked temple hinge, hex screws and a dual titanium brow bar.
Away from the Machs, the Grandmaster line is the bolder, more ornamental metal work — the Grandmaster-Four is the one we are asked for most — while Flight.006 and the Statesman models sit closer to everyday wear. Dita Lancier is the sport-luxury sub-line, with lenses tuned for land, sea or air. The archive is full of shapes worth knowing about too: Erasure reworked a 1950s classic, Endurance 88 borrowed the proportions of 1980s racing cars, and Silica took the shield frame somewhere close to science fiction.
What we hold in Paddington
We buy across the range rather than only the showpieces, because most Dita customers end up in an optical frame they wear every day.
- The titanium optical collection, including the plainer everyday shapes
- Signature aviators and browline squares from the Mach series
- Grandmaster and other metal-work pieces as released
- Sun models in more than one lens option, including polarised where offered
- Dita Lancier pieces when the line is in production
- Limited editions as they are released, in small numbers
Fit — who Dita suits
Dita frames tend to run wide and long. The sun models in particular are cut for a broad face, and the temples are straight for most of their length before the bend, which suits a head that is deep from front to back. If you are narrow through the temples, that is not a reason to avoid the brand — it is a reason to try three sizes rather than one, and to let us set the pad arms, which move the frame further than people expect.
The titanium optical frames are the quiet end of the house and the reason a lot of customers come back. They are light, they hold their adjustment, and the hinges are still tight years later, which is what you are paying for.
Prescription lenses, and how stock works
Almost every Dita sunglass can be made up with your prescription. We edge lenses in store rather than sending the frame away, which matters on a Dita rim: the step-down bevel means a lens cut a fraction wide sits proud and ruins the line of the front. We will also tell you honestly when a strongly wrapped frame is the wrong choice for a strong script.
Dita does not chase volume. Production runs are small, distribution is restricted, and colourways are often not repeated once they sell through. Ring us on 02 9331 4650 with a model name and we will check the cabinet and the current order book before you make the trip.
