Over one hundred years after the beginning of the Gambinis family activities in optics, we wanted to underline this goal by providing a historical monograph about the figure that has marked the most this path and created a Made in Italy brand: Germano Gambini.

After a sports career in basketball, which has led him to play for the national team in the early 60s, Germano Gambini starts the family business management (Gambinis possessed four Optical stores in Bologna) and immediately reveals a great capacity to understand in advance the evolution of the sector.

He’s among the very first in Italy who begins to spread the contact lenses and educate opticians about the use of what was a complete novelty at that time. With the birth of prêt à porter he realizes the importance of fashion eyewear and he’s the first one importing the Pierre Cardin “designer” sunglasses; he will workd with Cardin for a long time both for the distribution and for the design of the Collections. Then as a designer he will collaborate with famous designers like Ferrè, Trussardi and Coveri.

Since the ’70s he starts conceiving lines under its own name: as a former athlete, as well as to the design he also will pay great attention to the practicality and comfort of the eyeglasses, creating the Light line, famous for its frames with only 8 grams weigh.

To this collection many others will follow, always full of innovations and an unmistakable and innovative design: the eyemasks, which allowed to tan without taking off your glasses, Tessa, eyeglasses created with an unusual material such as plexiglass, the Variety, made up with an innovative combination of plastic and metal and dedicated to the younger audience, the Divine, among the first eyeglasses with Swarovski crystals, an expression of glamour and femininity which is now interpreted by the Crystals line.

Germano Gambini was innovator and pioneer during a time when eyeglasses in Italy were considered little more than an unpleasant necessity. He had the courage to break the pattern of the dominant taste and to bring in the eyewear world a breath of fresh air: forms, unusual materials and colors, which he knew how to impose to the trend setter with firm belief, creating trends which were then followed by many others.

Innovative designer and with an extraordinary creativity, eclectic and fascinating character, pioneer in research and trends, Germano Gambini united quality and glamour, color madness and simple, clean lines. A frame signed Germano Gambini would necessarily lead to: personality in design, care in creating and complete optic assistance.

The soul of Gambini’s style lives again today in his eyeglasses In 2008 he begins a partnership with Faoflex, Treviso based company that also today produces Gambini’s lines entirely in Italy, with high quality materials and craftsmanship.

Since 2011, after the passing of Germano Gambini, the baton is picked up by his daughter Paola, who starts a campaing of Brand development following the style and quality of the line drawn by the Founder.

Paola Gambini has collected the personal and professional legacy of his father deeply sharing its values and with a strong sense of responsibility towards a traditional brand. The market scenario has deeply changed, complex, competitive and global. That is why the challenge is exciting and is met without losing sight of the imprint left by the founder and its absolute loyalty to its high quality craftsmanship and to the Made in Italy. Today a qualified network of opticians offers Germano Gambini in its stores, in Italy and abroad, with the certainty of offering a valuable product, the highest synthesis between quality, style, comfort and emotion.
The project Germano Gambini Eyewear aims to spread worldwide a story of competence and passion, a reality with a long tradition, a history that represents the best of Made in Italy.