Apart from supplying and glazing high quality titanium frames like our range of Reykjavik Eyes, one of the most popular services we offer is reglazing your favourite frames. Here’s a slight twist on this service: Bring in your new pair of frames and I’ll advise on lenses and glaze the frames for you.
Because I can’t stock every brand under the sun, I’m more than happy to recommend my favourite designers, who show refreshed ranges of frames in the same way that haute couture designers present new designs in spring/summer and autumn/winter seasons every year, and even from time to time in limited edition ‘capsule collections’.
At the upper end of the bunch you’ll find Jacques Marie Mage. His glasses, both optical and sunglasses, seem to be everywhere these days, on slebs including Brad Pitt, Jack Nicholson, Jeff Goldblum, Beyoncé, Sydney Sweeney and Gigi Hadid. I’ve been noticing UK TV personalities sporting them, from news readers to presenters. The styles, mostly, but not exclusively, are made in highly polished, beautifully worked Japanese acetate. They feature modern takes inspired by classic styles from the 1930s through the 1960s and 1970s, all adorned with their hallmark silver or gold ‘arrowhead’ front-pins. Prices in the UK hover around the £800 - £1200 mark, but you can find certain models at certain retailers for as ‘little’ as £600. Then, there’s always second hand frames on eBay where I’ve found some great deals, but a couple caveats: (1) The fake JMM frames will be selling for ridiculously low prices, say under £300, and (2) For the genuine articles you’ll be competing with collectors who are willing to pay the high side of £2,000 for a pair of discontinued JMM frames. Though they are produced as ‘limited editions’ many of the JMM classics show up in later collections subtly modified — for instance, the acetate Zephirin and Dealan this year are being produced in titanium.
Ahlem is a French brand known, like JMM, for finely wrought acetate and titanium frames. The more modest sizes are priced between £350 and £500. The attention to detail on every Ahlem design alone is reassurance of their quality. The brand can be quirky as well as classic — their New York frame, an angled, geometric wire rim in champagne gold creates its own excitement, especially on a face confident enough to wear it. On the classic front, there’s the rectangular Rue de Turenne. I finished off my pair with a 50% Sweet Violet Zeiss tint.
Also French, the masterful and unique craft of Lucas de Staël. His atelier produces several lines of bespoke frames in exotic materials — varieties of leather including cow, goat, iguana and sting ray, alligator, and even in stone, including slate, granite, quartz and schist. Suffice to say they can produce the model you choose in any material and any colour, if you can come up with £650 to £1250 for their standard offerings, upwards of £1800 to £2200 for really bespoke pairs. His more budget friendly line is called Undostrial, a couple dozen designs in surgical steel, all beautifully made and yours for around £300.
Japanese eyeglass designers like Matsuda and Masunaga are justly famous for their artisanship. Both brands take pride in the intricate etching done on the smallest bits of their titanium and titanium-acetate frames. The craft extends to beautiful enamel inlays that glow like stained glass to accent the temple arms and outer rims of the lenses. Take a look at the Masunaga ‘Comet’ and ‘Imaginiste’ to get an idea, or the Matsuda M3152 and M3163. You can easily lose yourself, along with anything from £450 to £800 on their Web sites. Other interesting Japanese brands include Eyevan and Yellow Plus, both worth checking out.
A scarcer brand that’s getting a lot of deserved industry attention these days is Esmont, an English company founded by Yannis Mikridis in London. His frames, inspired by his first love, aviation, are lovingly manufactured in Japan, in acetate and titanium combinations, in pure beta titanium (aircraft grade), and rimless frames with gold, silver and titanium hardware. Most of the styles are proudly showy (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was recently spotted wearing a pair of Esmonts), and might land on the blingy side for less confident wearers. As sunglasses they can’t be beat. I own a pair of one of the simplest models, the Caudron, glazed for driving in Pioneer Green and can report they are sturdy, lightweight and look like nothing else. Esmont frames range in price from £650 to around £1000.
Further down the budget trail, two brands stand out. The Italian house, Gast, and from New York, Moscot. Gast hails from Milan, founded in 2019. Their designs of handmade sunglasses and optical frames excel in subtle, extremely wearable shapes and sizes, and very accommodating prices, around £200 - £300 for a terrific pair of beautifully polished Italian acetate. Moscot features what you can argue is a wider range, and longer lineage. They were established in 1915 by the patriarch of the family that still independently owns and operates the business, from shop floor to executive suite. I’ve chosen their gorgeous Lemtosh frame in Black Crystal, which I’ll be outfitting with Zeiss’s newest lens design, ClearMind. Come back for my review of this promising and novel premiere lens.
BTW, if you have any questions about anything briefly sketched in this blog, don’t be backward in coming forward and write in with your questions, You can find me at www.specsathome.london.