Nina Mûr vs Rigards — Two Brands That Refuse to Use Acetate

Acetate dominates independent eyewear so completely that most buyers never think to ask what else is possible. These two brands are among the very few genuinely committed to answering that question with something other than plastic.

Quick Answer

Nina Mûr is a Madrid studio, founded in 2018 by designer Lorena Serrano, building frames from laminated layers of Finnish birch plywood with metal hardware. Rigards is a Hong Kong brand, founded in 2012 by Ti Kwa and Jean-Marc Virard, building frames from buffalo horn, copper, solid wood, and aluminum-magnesium alloy — explicitly avoiding acetate and synthetic plastics. Nina Mûr retails for about $360-$525; Rigards typically runs roughly $650-$850, higher for silver and collaboration pieces.

Two different answers to "what if not acetate"

Nina Mûr's answer is engineered wood. The frames are built from thin laminated layers of Finnish birch plywood, sourced from reforested Finnish forests, hand cut, sanded, and finished with epoxy resin entirely in the Madrid workshop. Lamination is the key detail here — a single piece of solid wood would be prone to warping and cracking in ways a frame can't tolerate, but layering many thin sheets under pressure creates something structurally closer to a composite material while still being genuinely, visibly wood.

Rigards' answer is broader and more varied: buffalo horn as the signature material, plus copper, solid wood, and aluminum-magnesium alloy across the line, with founders Ti Kwa and Jean-Marc Virard building the brand explicitly around avoiding plastic and synthetic materials entirely. One specific, worth-knowing detail: the buffalo horn is sourced from animals that died of natural causes — a real sourcing distinction if material ethics factor into your decision.

Design philosophy

Nina Mûr's design leans toward clean, minimal silhouettes that let the wood grain itself be the visual interest — the material does the talking rather than an elaborate shape. It's a quieter, more accessible take on natural-material eyewear.

Rigards leans into a different aesthetic entirely, one the brand's own philosophy describes with the Japanese term "wabi-sabi" — finding beauty in natural imperfection and organic material variation. Combined with the broader materials palette (horn frames with copper or wood detailing, aluminum-magnesium hardware), Rigards reads as more sculptural and varied than Nina Mûr's focused birch-plywood approach.

Price and what you're actually paying for

The price gap reflects real differences in material sourcing and variety, not a quality gap. Nina Mûr's focused single-material approach (with a supporting metal hardware element) is inherently more scalable and affordable than Rigards' multi-material, horn-centric construction.

Who should buy which

Buy Nina Mûr if you want genuine wood-grain eyewear at an accessible price, or you prefer a minimal, single-material design statement. Buy Rigards if you want a broader natural-materials palette (horn, copper, wood, metal alloy together), you're drawn to the wabi-sabi design philosophy specifically, or budget is less of a constraint than material variety.

The bottom line

Most eyewear buyers never get offered a real alternative to acetate — these two brands are among the small handful actually building one. Nina Mûr makes that alternative accessible and focused. Rigards makes it varied and a little more expensive. Either way, if you've never held wood or horn eyewear in your hands, both are worth trying before you assume plastic is the only option that makes sense.

Find a boutique carrying either brand, read the full Nina Mûr spotlight, or compare the Nina Mûr and Rigards designer pages.