Sunday 31 January 2010

Thursday 28 January 2010

Super makes 333 Chocolate sunglasses

Super & Chocolate sunglasses
Super & Chocolate occhiali
Not real chocolate, that would not be good on a hot day. No, Super has teamed up with skateboard brand Chocolate to create these limited editions, in celebration of Chocolate's 15-year anniversary. A total of 333 are available, complete with high-quality Zeiss lenses.

Very unusual Porsche Design 5660 vintage sunglasses

Porsche Design 5660 sunglasses

These Porsche Design vintage shades are great/strange! With thanks to M sunglasses collection

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Tuesday 26 January 2010

IC! Berlin gets naked and noticed at Berlin Fashion Week

I don't mean this to become a theme. Everybody knows that sex sells (Tom Ford Eyewear ads are testament to that).

Imagine my surprise yesterday morning as I settled down with a coffee and a copy of the Metro on a London train when I spotted a picture of a man, kneeling on a runway at Berlin fashion week, completely starkers except for some black tape around his eyes, wrists and body.

"Designer Ralph Ander [sic]... at Berlin Fashion Show..," read the caption. Hold on, I know someone called Ralph Anderl in Berlin, he of spectacle geniuses IC! Berlin, and this chap looks familiar, although the lack of clothes makes it harder to tell (I don't know him that well).

Then I remembered the guys at IC! were up to something... http://wehavenothing.com - a project combining fashion, art and charity - find out about wehavenothing here

And so the clever chaps at IC! Berlin manage to grab the world's attention ("Read the 76 other news articles" said Google News) for the hardest feats in fashion: Promoting glasses on the runway. Look out for Ralph lying down in the buff, oh, and for loads of great new designs...

Monday 25 January 2010

Rolf wood glasses - beautiful spectacles complete with wooden hinge!!!

Wooden glasses have once, last year, carved their way on to Eye Wear Glasses before in the shape of Shoulda. And clever hinges get me as excited as a kid swinging on a gate, so imagine my delight upon discovering Rolf Spectacles.

Rolf glasses - wooden eyeglasses. Photo: Eder Robert

Great, aren't they? Handmade, extremly lightweight.
Rolf glasses - wooden eyeglasses
Above is Taunus, below Eliott Salloon, both made of walnut.
Rolf glasses - wooden eyeglasses
Next a little detail showing the curve and the hinge - made of compressed wood and no screws. There's even a little stitch that holds the lenses in place - all extremely clever.

Rolf glasses - wooden eyeglasses

And finally here's Chris holding the Silmo D'Or for technological innovation (frames, not lenses) which Rolf Spectacles won for the Imperator last year - made of bog oak/maple. Company founder Roland Wolf: “We have researched and developed for over two years until we eventually came to the product we now have”.

Rolf glasses - wooden eyeglasses. Photo: Eder Robert

Billionaire Boys Club Series 8 sunglases

Billionaire Boys Club has launched these terrific Series 8 sunglasses, available in tortoiseshell, red and red/silver. This is the best looking tortoiseshell effect I've seen in a while...

Saturday 23 January 2010

Friday 22 January 2010

L.G.R for Antonio Marras - women's sunglasses for 2010

L.G.R sunglasses collaboration with Antonio Marras - Milan Fashion Show 2010


L.G.R is a new brand for me, and what I've seen so far is mighty impressive. Here LGR collaborates with Antonio Marras for in a 2010 women's collection inspired by Africa and the colours of the desert. The lens-frame contrast reminds me a little of my find in Antarctica a week or two back.

Handmade in Italy and like all LGR sunglasses, the lenses are made of anti-reflective, anti-scratch, tempered mineral glass (always a sign of quality) and the frames use a clever material called cellulose acetate which is a little like memory metals but for plastic (as demonstrated impressively in the clip below).

Luca Gnecchi Ruscone started the company in 2007. It has a great optical collection and are definitely one to watch. Much more including an optical collection on the LGR Sunglasses website

Thursday 21 January 2010

2010 Green Prada sunglasses ad campaign

These green sunglasses, featured in the 2010 Prada advertising campaign, are terrific. I don't know a model number, however - sorry. Will update when I do.

UPDATE: Here's the pink pair -  PR 19MS - available here...



Thanks to Paper Bag.

Wednesday 20 January 2010

The Book of Eli: glasses and sunglasses identified...

For every film where I don't know the leading role's eyewear, there's another where I do. These are Face à Face glasses called Woody. The film in question is The Book of Eli, and these are worn by Gary Oldman... note the classic colour on the inside of the frame, and the slightly exaggerated corners.
Face a Face Woody glasses on Gary Oldman in The Book of Eli
Face a Face Woody glasses on Gary Oldman in The Book of Eli

Denzil Washington wears Oakley Inmate sunglasses in The Book of Eli
And if you want to know what Denzil Washington (strictly the lead) is wearing in the Eli film, they are Oakley Inmate sunglasses...
Denzil Washington wears Oakley Inmate sunglasses in The Book of Eli

Who makes Colin Firth's glasses in A Single Man?



All I know is that Colin Firth's glasses in Tom Ford's A Single Man, are not Tom Ford Eyewear. Sunglasses Onstage suggests they're mid-20th-century vintage and I'd agree as the closest I've seen to these were in the top-notch quality vintage drawers at the Eye Company in Soho, London. It certainly provides spectacles for TV and film, so possibly?

Who makes Colin Firth's glasses in A Single Man? Barton Perreira?
But then Barton Perreira do something extremely similar with the Preston (right).

When I see the film, I will be the one disappointed at the end. I'll hang around to read all the credits, only to find the "Eyewear: " line non-existent. Seen it already? Let  me know if you know more.

UPDATE 28 Dec 2010

Well we got there in the end folks: the answer is a pair of Nalco #44 vintage 1960s frames like these right.

If you're dead quick you can buy them on eBay here.

I actually got round to watching the film a month ago and have been searching for a bow-tie-shaped rivet detail on a temple ever since. But today the eBay seller left a comment below and solved 2010's Eye Wear Glasses mystery... These are definitely them!

Tuesday 19 January 2010

Sunday 17 January 2010

My dad, he wears glasses - a poem by Tony Pettengell


My dad, he wears glasses
He wears them on his head
And when he goes to sleep at night
He keeps them by the bed.


He takes them in a case to work
He brings them back at night
He cleans them with a small blue cloth
To keep them shiny bright.


My dad, he wears glasses
But not so he can see
They’re on his head…
Or by the bed.



But never
Are his glasses ever
Perched upon his nose.
It could be that his glasses have no glass in I
suppose.


Glasses poem by the multi-talented Tony Pettengell, pictured wearing Benson and Ashley 0BA004, complete with lenses.

Saturday 16 January 2010

Thursday 14 January 2010

Record collectors beware - these vinyl glasses are limited editions

Tipton Eyeworks Vinylize 2010 collection


Remember Tipton Eyeworks? Of course you do, the Hungarian handmade range of frames with 16mm and 35mm early 20th century stag film in the temples. Long before those, Tipton have been producing glasses made from record vinyl since the early noughties and today sees the launch of the 2010 Vinylize collection. Above: Jackson. Below: Chicago and Don Giovanni (close-up).

Tipton Eyeworks Vinylize 2010 collection
Tipton Eyeworks Vinylize 2010 collection

And they even come with their own groovy case...



These frames all look great as either glasses or sunglasses. They're limited in number and are stamped on the temple tip with an American cheque numbering machine. There's loads more detail on Tipton's own blog - I love them.

Sunday 10 January 2010

Barton Perreira 2010 eyeglasses ad campaign featuring Giovanni Ribisi



Avatar star Giovanni Ribisi stars in this 2010 campaign for the brilliant Barton Perreira optical collection. There's some great pieces including this beautiful, brown acetate...

Barton Perreira glasses

And the music in the video? Wild Beasts, from perhaps my favourite album of 2009: Two Dancers

Friday 8 January 2010

Colab Eyewear's Waybetters - entering the frame name hall of fame

Waybetters by Colab Eyewear

Waybetters from Colab. Great picture and a great, knowing name for a frame. Each Colab frame is limited to a run of 1,000 so if these are way better, they're probably sold out by now.

Thursday 7 January 2010

Inspirational corners from Brazil - anyone know who makes these?



Yvan Rodic takes what must be hundreds of pictures a day for his Facehunter blog and none too surprisingly a few of the hunted faces wear glasses of some kind or other.

I've never seen anything like these and would love to know who they're by (and how they fold).

All ideas welcome...

Wednesday 6 January 2010

LA Eyeworks Hicks glasses - tortoiseshell and black

LA Eyeworks Hicks frame on me. Photo: Rob Moss


I said a while back that I'd post a picture of me in my LA Eyeworks frame Hicks. Well here it is, taken on one of those cold, bright winter mornings.

It has black temples and a tortoiseshell-coloured acetate frame...

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Side protection sunglasses in Antarctica... safety first!

Unidentified sunglasses / safety glasses in Antarctica. Photo: JK Keller
Eye Wear Glasses is a global blog. It is mainly written in London but we have photographic contributions from all over. None however have been as far-flung as this one. Here's JK Keller in Antarctica, impressing the penguins in these smokey prescription shades. I love the two shades of grey and the double bridge.

JK chose these sunglasses from the safety frame range in a small-town optical store and had to beg them to put the prescription sunlenses in them. If you look carefully (click picture to enlarge) you can make out the side protection.

"I lost the glasses a few months later," says JK "Sad, very sad." I could not agree more.

All this was a decade ago so JK was certainly well ahead of his time. EWG applauds you!

Retro Super Future Sideview sunglassesFancy sunglasses with side lenses?

Try Retro Super Future's Sideviews...

See more of JK's Antarctica pictures here. Or visit his cool art/design website. Or click one, click the back button and click the other.

Monday 4 January 2010

Sunday 3 January 2010

More Ray-Ban opticals - Marta in Innsbruck

Marta in Ray Ban RB5122 glasses. Photo: fra.cor on Flickr

More Ray-Ban glasses on the street, this time in Innsbruck. This is Marta - thanks for the great photo by fra.cor.

Ray Ban RB5122 glasses
I think these are RB5122...

Saturday 2 January 2010