![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Not their arrows? Key StylesĪnother in the Warby Parker mould, this upstart British start-up has a “rebellious spirit”, which is perhaps why Liam Gallagher wore its Hamilton sunglasses at Glasto. Over a century later, the folding 714 sunglasses that style kingmaker Steve McQueen wore in 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair remains by far the most famous of the brand’s models, but the brand’s opticals also bear the same vintage styling and trademark freccia or arrow on the hinges and arms, “inspired by the swords of ancient warriors”. (Persol is a contraction of “per il sole”, meaning “for the sun”). While Ray-Ban was just a glint in American pilots’ narrowed eyes, Italian optician and photographer Guiseppe Ratti in 1917 invented “Protectors” which took off with air forces worldwide as well as race drivers and, er, poets. The brand’s showroom has since relocated to Blackfriars. It wasn’t until the nineties though that the company, at one point in its 100-year history the largest spectacle frame maker in the capital, discovered a trunk full of fifties and sixties styles in its archive that informed its Originals range.Ī hit on the vibrant club scene, the reissues adorned tastemaking magazines such as The Face and Arena, and music makers such as Oasis, Sir Mick Jagger, Paul Weller and Morrissey. Key StylesĮxactly a century ago, the Kirks were making clothes and buttons in London’s Clerkenwell when they had the vision to diversify. NB speccing your specs is genuinely expensive: from £725, with a £200 premium for real buffalo horn. Cubitts founder Tom Broughton made his first pair of frames at his kitchen table in London’s King’s Cross in 2013 the store there and in nearby Coal Drops Yard are two of its eight outposts across the capital, which offer eye tests for £25 if you buy frames, plus sunglasses (prescription and otherwise), transitions lenses, made-to-measure and bespoke. ![]() Key StylesĪ direct-to-consumer brand, yes, but one that feels reassuringly expensive enough to be stocked at the discerning likes of Mr Porter and Liberty. Today, Ray-Bans are as evocative as the Top Gun soundtrack, and as ageless as Tom Cruise in the sequel. It’s more famous as a sunglasses brand but many of its famous styles – including the Wayfarer, Clubmaster and Aviator – are also available as opticals, worn by everyone from Malcolm X to Seth Rogen. So after launching its teardrop-shaped shades, designed to protect the areas not covered by US Air Force pilots’ helmets and masks, to the general public in 1937, Bausch & Lomb wisely redubbed them “Ray-Ban” the following year. “Anti-Glare” doesn’t quite have the same ring. It also provides a free try-at-home service if you can’t look in on its London, Bristol, Manchester and Glasgow stores. Like its US counterpart, Ace & Tate is able to slash prices by cutting out middlemen and production chain profligacy: its Amsterdam-designed styles, which are handmade in Italy or China, somehow cost less than £100 in some cases – with prescription lenses. Ace & TateĪ play on common frame material acetate, Ace & Tate, founded in 2013, is oft dubbed the European answer to Warby Parker, which disrupted the American eyewear market with its direct-to-consumer model a decade ago. So with that caveat, these 12 brands have historically had a rep for good optics, or are fast building one. Whether you get what you pay for in terms of materials and construction is one question, but sometimes you’re paying for design or pedigree, which at least is worth more than a random non-eyewear designer label on your frames’ arms. ![]()
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