Inspired by big thinkers and ambitious outcasts, this Icon of JMM, originally released Spring 2015, is acclaimed for its pre-WWII sizing, sculptural silhouette, meticulous hand-finish, and signature precious metal embellishments. 

Its proportions recall the spectacles of the interwar years, when smaller-sized frames were the intellectual’s badge of honor. In an era that saw the rise of delicate filigree etchings and the introduction of nose pads, glasses shifted from medical necessity to subtle expressions of identity. Whether in the lecture halls of Europe or the smoky cafés of a burgeoning avant-garde, such frames suggested a rare seriousness of purpose, the quiet glamour of those who lived by their ideas.

Named for the third-century pontiff Pope Zephyrinus, these slim-lined spectacles carry a certain intellectual swagger: the kind worn by cultural aesthetes with the panache of a professor and the calm conviction of a saint. 

The real Zephyrinus didn’t exactly coast through his papacy. As Bishop of Rome from 199 to 217, he presided over a persecuted Church under Emperor Septimius Severus, fending off heresies while enduring slander from within. Often underestimated, he would come to be remembered as a quiet defender of doctrine—a figure whose legacy, like these frames, transcends the era that shaped it.