Kuboraum: The Berlin Mask-Makers Redefining Statement Eyewear
TL;DR — Kuboraum is a Berlin eyewear house whose frames, called "Masks," are dreamed in Berlin and handmade in Italy. It was started by an artist-sculptor, Livio Graziottin, and an anthropologist, Sergio Eusebi, who launched their first five models in 2011 as a deliberate rejection of mainstream eyewear. The result is sculptural, logo-free, and unmistakable. Gazal Eyecare carries 130-plus Masks, from about $360 to $2,600.
Quick answer: what actually makes Kuboraum different?
Most eyewear brands hire designers. Kuboraum was founded by a sculptor and an anthropologist, and it shows in everything they make. The frames are not styled to flatter a trend cycle. They are built as objects that change how you read a face. Kuboraum calls them Masks, and it means that literally: the brand's whole thesis is that the right frame does not draw attention to itself, it amplifies the person wearing it. That is a genuinely different starting point from "which shape suits your face," and it is why a Kuboraum looks like nothing else on the shelf.
Who founded Kuboraum?
Livio Graziottin and Sergio Eusebi met in Berlin in 2009, at a vernissage in a mutual friend's art gallery. Graziottin is described on the brand's own site as an artist, sculptor and designer; Eusebi as an anthropologist and brand director. That is an unusual pairing for an eyewear label, and it is the whole story. Two years after meeting, in 2011, they released a first collection of just five models, which Kuboraum says was "conceived in opposition to all the dominant aesthetics in the world of eyewear."
The company was founded in a former post office that straddled the old border between East and West Berlin. The building had been converted into a gallery, then became the studio, showroom and flagship store it houses today. If you want to understand why Kuboraum feels more like an art project than an optical brand, that address is the answer.
Why does Kuboraum call its frames "Masks"?
Because they are meant to work like masks. Kuboraum's design manifesto describes its frames as "cubic rooms where we shelter ourselves" — the name itself fuses the German ideas of cube and room. A mask, in their telling, is not about hiding. It is about accentuation, protection and permission to look different. Honestly, it sounds like a lot until you put one on and watch a plain frontal photo of yourself turn into something you actually want to look at.
This is also why you will never find a big logo on the front. "Kuboraum is no logo," the brand states flatly. The Mask is supposed to highlight the wearer, not itself. For a market drowning in temple-plaque branding, that restraint is quietly radical.
How do the model names work?
Every Kuboraum is a "Mask" plus a letter-and-number code — K10, P8, H40, X12. The letter roughly tracks a design family or construction, the number the specific model. Once you learn to read the codes, browsing gets easier: the optical Masks and the sun Masks share the same naming logic, so an optical P-series and a sun P-series feel like relatives. It is a system built by people who think in catalogues and archives, not marketing names — fitting, given one of them is an anthropologist.
What are Kuboraum frames made of?
Two headline materials, endlessly reworked. The acetate Masks are thick, hand-carved and often finished with irregular, almost geological surfaces — no two feel identical. Then there is the metal side, most famously the Machinery Series: pared-back steel constructions, several of them rimless, that look engineered rather than styled. The Mask H40 is a good entry point to that world. Kuboraum's own taxonomy runs deeper still — acetate-and-metal hybrids, "Eyecouture and Precious Material," Morph-Machinery, Hydromechanics — but all of it lands on the same promise stamped across the brand: dreamed in Berlin, handmade in Italy.
Who wears Kuboraum?
This is where the "underground art label" framing stops being marketing. Kuboraum's public archive photographs the Masks on a roster that reads like a contemporary-culture guest list: Rihanna in the X5, Madonna in the X12, artist Ai Weiwei in the N4, Erykah Badu, Oprah Winfrey, Nicolas Cage, Ludacris, and Berlin photographer Sven Marquardt in the U8. The brand has collaborated with Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof contemporary art museum and, in 2018, opened its own art residency. Press coverage spans Vogue, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, Numéro and Wallpaper. Kuboraum did not chase that crowd; the crowd found the frames.
Where to buy Kuboraum
Gazal Eyecare stocks one of the deeper Kuboraum selections you will find online — more than 130 Masks across optical and sun, roughly $360 to $2,600. Start with the full Kuboraum collection, or split by intent: optical Masks if you want a prescription statement frame, sun Masks if you want shade with an argument. Want the boldest thing in the case? The Mask Z50 is not for the faint-hearted.
FAQ
Where is Kuboraum from?
Kuboraum is a Berlin-based eyewear brand — its studio, showroom and flagship store sit in a former post office on the old East-West Berlin border. The frames are designed in Berlin and handmade in Italy, per the brand's own "dreamed in Berlin, handmade in Italy" mark.
Who founded Kuboraum and when?
Artist-sculptor Livio Graziottin and anthropologist Sergio Eusebi founded it. They met in Berlin in 2009, and released their first collection of five models in 2011. It is a founder pairing from art and anthropology, not the fashion houses you might expect.
Why are Kuboraum frames called Masks?
Kuboraum designs eyewear to work like a mask — not to conceal, but to accentuate the wearer's character. The brand describes its frames as "cubic rooms," which is where the name comes from, and deliberately keeps them logo-free so the Mask highlights the person, not the label.
Are Kuboraum frames handmade?
Yes. Every Mask is handmade in Italy from acetate, metal, or a combination, then finished by hand — which is why acetate models can carry unique, slightly irregular surfaces. Designs originate in the brand's Berlin studio.
How much does Kuboraum eyewear cost?
At Gazal Eyecare, Kuboraum Masks run from around $360 for entry sun models to about $2,600 for precious-material pieces, with most optical and sun Masks landing between roughly $500 and $850.
The bottom line
Kuboraum is what happens when a sculptor and an anthropologist decide eyewear should be a cultural object, not a commodity. The Masks are handmade in Italy, logo-free by principle, and built to make the person wearing them the point. If you have ever wanted a frame that starts conversations instead of blending in, this is the brand. Browse the full Kuboraum collection at Gazal Eyecare and find the Mask that reads like you.