4022 Rectangle Sunglasses — Brushed Gold/Brown

Chanel entered the 2000s with an eyewear programme built on restraint rather than logo. Under Karl Lagerfeld the house pared its frames down to slim metal and precise geometry, and the 4022 is that thinking at its cleanest — part of the same early-2000s run as the 4020, 4024 and 4032, now the most actively collected chapter of the house's eyewear archive.

Satin gold-tone metal throughout, with a flat faceted front that steps down at the outer corners into a sculpted temple hinge — the detail that gives the 4022 presence despite its slim proportions. Original solid brown lenses are marked CHANEL at both outer edges. The temples carry an engraved CHANEL plaque and taper to burgundy acetate tips, stamped inside with 4022, colour c.140/21 and 51-21-125. Supplied with its original Chanel case. Made in Italy.

Y2K eyewear is usually collected for its excess — shields, rhinestones, logo-plastered wraps. The 4022 makes the opposite argument: small, metal and unlogoed at ten feet, reading as archive Chanel or as an anonymous pair of very good Italian frames depending on who's looking. Twenty-odd years on, that ambiguity is the point. One size.