Fine Arts Optical in the Mission, San Francisco

The life of an occasional glasses blogger is, of course, an exciting one. And the past few weeks were no different as I headed west to California for my summer break. After a week or two of getting used to the way that most things are bigger and better than back in England, I stumbled across the Fine Arts Optical boutique in the Mission district of San Francisco.

It's the first time I've found glasses sold alongside hats - but I like it. And I loved the wide range of lovely frames on offer. Quite literally hundreds and hundreds of them - an amazing collection, many of which is handmade in the US.

Maija-Liisa, above, did a great job showing me round, and even retrieved her favourite buffalo horn frames from the special drawer by the desk, namely the Monarch, by Fine Arts itself. Rarely do you see such a light coloured horn. Price: $1200.

Well worth a visit! 888 Valencia Street.

Götti get you into my life: horn glasses from Switzerland

Götti is renowned for its high-quality metals and acetate frames, but now it has launched some buffalo horn specs, right and above...

Lindberg's horn and titanium frame wins top tech prize at Silmo

Lindberg has a strong history of innovation so it's great to see it get the recognition it deserves with a Silmo d'Or in Paris. I had a good look at these Horn glasses in Paris and can confirm that the way the horn front fixes to the titanium sides is indeed clever stuff. And as these images testify, the join is far from clumsy. From the top: Lindberg 1801, 1802 and 1803.

Morgenthal Frederics aviators for L.A.M.B. Fall 2011 runway

The L.A.M.B. Fall 2011 collection, by another singer-turned-designer Gwen Stefani,  at New York Fashion Week featured none other than Manhattan's premier eyewear brand Morgenthal Frederics on the catwalk.

Specifically, the Corsair aviator, right and below.

A little more digging around and I'm mightily impressed with Morgenthal Frederics - it should have been on these webpages sooner.

It chooses where to make its eyewear wisely: Japanese titanium, German buffalo horn and hand-crafted French acetates. All top notch design and expertly crafted.

Right and below, Corsair, is made of titanium, but others below are buffalo horn and acetate. All rather lovely I'm sure you'll agree.