Liu Jo Eyewear: An Italian Love Story, Turned Into a Fashion House

Liu Jo is one of the more unusual brand names in Italian fashion — not a founder's surname, not a place, but a pair of nicknames pulled straight from a personal memory. That same personal, romantic sensibility has carried through into the brand's eyewear, which has become a recognizable name in accessible Italian luxury.

A name born from a memory: Carpi, 1995

Liu Jo was founded in 1995 in Carpi, Italy, by brothers Marco and Vannis Marchi. The brand's unusual name comes directly from Marco Marchi's own life: "Jo" was his personal nickname, and "Liu" was the nickname of one of his early companions. Rather than naming the label after the family surname, as so many Italian fashion houses do, the Marchi brothers built their brand around a small, personal piece of nostalgia.

Carpi, where Liu Jo was founded, sits in Italy's Modena province — a region long recognized as the country's center for knitwear production, giving the young label an obvious head start in textile expertise. Liu Jo began as a modest textile business before developing, over the course of the mid-1990s, into one of Italy's major pret-à-porter fashion brands.

Building a fashion identity

Liu Jo's early growth centered on its core Liu Jo and Liu Jeans collections, first sold through multi-brand retailers before expanding into dedicated single-brand stores both in Italy and abroad. Over the following years, the company steadily built out its offering — adding jewelry and watches, a children's line, underwear and beachwear, and home goods, all while staying anchored to founder Marco Marchi's guiding philosophy, focused on celebrating what he's described as a "typically Italian feminine ideal." As Marchi has put it, many companies lose their DNA over time — Liu Jo, he's said, chose instead to strengthen it.

A major milestone came in 2010 with the launch of Liu Jo's Bottega-inspired accessories line, which led directly into the brand's now well-known handbag collections. The following year, Kate Moss became the face of the brand, giving Liu Jo a level of international visibility that helped fuel its continued expansion.

Eyewear joins the collection: 2013

Liu Jo's eyewear line began in 2013, when the company signed a licensing agreement with Marchon Eyewear to design and manufacture its sunglasses and optical frames. The brand's Fall/Winter 2014 collection, fronted by model Dree Hemingway, marked an early milestone for the eyewear line's advertising presence, and Liu Jo went on to work with a rotating roster of high-profile models over the following years — including Karlie Kloss, Jourdan Dunn, Martha Hunt, Jasmine Tookes, and Joan Smalls — to front its seasonal campaigns.

A design language built on natural femininity

Liu Jo's eyewear collections are built around the same core value the brand has emphasized since its founding: an enhancement of natural, individual femininity. Collections mix a wide range of moods within the same line — lightweight, sophisticated silhouettes sit alongside bolder, more playful designs featuring graceful decorative elements, vivid colors, Liu Jo emblems, and detailed metalwork. Signature pieces include glittering aviators with acetate-tipped temples and oversized square "maxi glamour" frames finished in tortoiseshell or bold black-and-gold combinations, reflecting the brand's broader identity: refined, glamorous, and open to individual interpretation.

Where the brand stands today

Liu Jo remains a family-controlled business, with Marco Marchi continuing as the label's creative director following a 2017 corporate reorganization. The eyewear line, still produced through Marchon, has expanded into a well-established range spanning oversized square shapes to more minimalist rectangular frames, continuing to be worn by fashion-forward women and endorsed by contemporary style icons.