Illesteva Sunglasses: Best Mykonos, Cat-Eye and Havana Frames

Marissa Grossman, our SVP of Global Media, pulled this edit together from what she is currently wearing at Illesteva, and it reads like a real cross-section of the brand rather than a single obsession. The mix runs from the label's signature Mykonos shape in a few finishes to sharper cat-eye and rectangular styles, plus a couple of less expected colorways in burgundy and champagne tones. Illesteva built its name on the Leonard and the original Mykonos, and the acetate quality and shape language here still show that lineage. The range covers a real spread of face shapes and moods, from the oversized, slightly retro Vanderbilt Sunglasses to the smaller, sharper Telluride Sunglasses, so there is a starting point here whatever has worked, or not worked, in the past.

Between the loud colorways and the core Mykonos shape sits a quieter option worth calling out on its own: warm Havana tones that read as neutral without disappearing into plain black. The Encinitas Sunglasses put that tortoiseshell tone on a classic frame, an easy pair to wear with almost anything already in a closet. The Queens Sunglasses take the same warm base and add a red Havana finish with a taupe gradient lens, giving it slightly more personality than a straight tortoise pair while staying wearable daily. Both sit comfortably between the safest neutral and the more directional shapes elsewhere in this edit. If a first or second pair from the brand needs to work with more than one outfit, this warmer tortoise family is worth trying before a louder colorway.

The Mykonos family (Ace, II and M) is the strongest starting point if new to the brand, since it is the shape Illesteva is actually known for and the one most consistently flattering across face shapes. The Prince Tate and Sorrento styles lean more directional, better suited to someone who already has a reliable everyday pair and wants something with more personality.

We would skip building a first pair around a very niche colorway like the plum see-through Memphis, fun as it is, since a neutral tortoise or black pair earns its keep far more often. If you take one thing away, start with a Mykonos shape in a neutral colorway and treat the rest of this edit as the second and third pair, not the first.