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.

Seeoo Big and the Seeoo Classic

While we remain to be convinced about any big come-back for the monocle, the pince-nez (from the French for pinch-nose) has, in our opinion, more of a future. Particularly in the format below, Classic, from Austria's Seeoo. Perfect as an occasional ready-reader, these exquisite gadgets fit in a credit-card-sized case. For the more regular glasses wearer, Big, above, pinches its styling from the pince-nez below in rather a dramatic way.

House of Flora: Red Hex Spex

We're enjoying London-based House of Flora's bold sunglass designs. Above is the wonderful Red Hex Spex as worn last year in a UK Elle photoshoot of Rihanna. Above that is the gloriously named Ping Pong and top is Basquiat. As well as eyewear, House of Flora also designs amazing hats and jewellery.

Top photo: Nick Tucker; model Illy Jay.
Second photo: Max Oppenheim; model Immy at Storm; stylist Vanessa Minshull. 

Matte and fat at Cheap Monday

Meet the new Hybris collection from Cheap Monday. Glasses have been getting bigger and badder for years now and we're loving these sunnies from the Swedes. Cheap Monday says the collection conveys a "kick-ass" attitude, something we've always approved of at EWG. We'll feature some opticals in a week or two.

Christian Roth 2014 sunglasses captured by Formento & Formento

Here's the latest from Éric Domège and Christian Roth, as captured by photographic duo Richeille and BJ Formento in Miami’s MiMo district for the designers' 2014 campaign.

Top to bottom: Belles of Embellishment, Christian's Own, and Piece and Love. The range of colours is vast. Below is Christian's Own (named after his favourite aviator shape), in the colourway Design 78,  a "Fluo Orange with Fluo Green & Caribic Blue detail". Prices circa $460.

RVS yes yes by V: The female Point of View

Yesterday we looked at RVS by V's male Point of View, and today we take a look at some more feminine views. Top Mulholland Drive, then Alien and, above, the deliciously named Moulin Rouge Strawberry Shortcake.

Triwa 2013 sunglasses: Henry, Debbie, Ernest and Thelma

Pared pairs: the Now & Then sunglass collection

Pared (good name alert!) is the new brand from Ksubi designer Samantha Stevenson. 

Here are four good pairs from the the first collection, Now & Then: top is Puss and Boots, then Bigger and Better and below is Salt and Pepper.

Handmade from top-qual Japanese acetate; prices start at AUS$220.

Ewe Year Glasses: Deer jawbone glasses from Emma Montague (EWG is back!)

Sheep-related frames eluded us for our annual Ewe Year Glasses post so we stretched the ovine boundaries just a little... check out Emma Montague's deer jawbone eyewear, above.

This is EWG's first post in many, many weeks, following relocation, regrouping and a planned forthcoming rejuvenation of the site. Happy New Year!!

Limited-edition Beth frames from Mykita, by Beth Ditto

Mykita has teamed up with Beth Ditto to produce this exquisite limited-edition frame, "Beth". It comes in purple and white versions with violet gradient lenses. There are 100 frames in purple, and the white one, ditto.

3D printed glasses #1: a cross-stitch eyewear creation

EWG was first to reveal the Colors of Birch collection of 3D printed glasses last year, but we're a  few months behind on these cross-stitch spectacles. Nevertheless we're proud to feature the Tapestry Spectacle by Chloë McCormick and NODH, featured in the Send to Print / Print to Send exhibition in London in January. There's something rather cosy about these!

Oliver Goldsmith bespoke sunglasses - handmade in England

Here's a little video from Oliver Goldsmith showing what goes into making a bespoke pair of sunglasses. These little beauties are handmade in England...

And above that, the pyramid shades we've raved about here before, which once featured in the late Vidal Sassoon's 1960s ad campaign and currently feature at the top of Eye Wear Glasses' Facebook page. Feel free to like us there!

Alberta Ferretti 2012 sunglasses by Cutler and Gross

Alberta Ferretti has launched its first sunglass collection, in collaboration with Cutler and Gross. The six styles  feature some dramatic curves inspired by Alberta Ferretti's ready-to-wear collection. We're loving the contrasting shape of the lens with the frame in this sexy white model below...

Get around, round, round: Mykita eyewear 2012

Mykita continues to make round glasses as inviting as they ever could be. Above you can see Teiti, Thorvald and Cecile. And at the top, two pictures from another wonderful Mykita lookbook, shot by Mark Borthwick. See the full Mykita 2012 lookbook here...

A room with a Vue: Kis sunglasses

Vue DC is a brand we need to get to know much better in 2012. You may remember we featured Lyz here for its Silmo D'Or nomination last year. We loved them and we love these: Kis. Available in three other colours...

Oliver Goldsmith white Pyramid shades from the 1960s

These triangular white "Pyramid" sunglasses were made by Oliver Goldsmith for a campaign for a Vidal Sasson campaign in 1966 (although I've also read '68 and '72). They were designed to go with a particular haircut but I've never managed to track down a photo of the two together.

Many of the original shades from that era are still available from Oliver Goldsmith here... You can also see these sunglasses in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Who made Kanye West's shutter glasses?

Shutter glasses, also known as Venetian blinders, were made for Kanye West by French eyewear supremo Alain Mikli. Kanye West brought them to the fore again, after a period of popularity in the 1980s, in his video Stronger. Why am I writing about them now, five years later? You'll see...

The first example I found of them being worn was in Simple Minds' 1982 video Glittering Prize below...

You'll see that the original 1980s frame above – image from my review of Moss Lipow's excellent book Eyewear and courtesy of Taschen – and the gold one in the Simple Minds video had only a narrow frame at the temples and is quite different to the Stronger aviator-shaped white pair worn by the Kanye West .

Others have made them too.

Indeed there's a company called Shutter Shades who churns them out in every colour.

And Mykita collaborated with Romain Kremer for this version, left,  in stainless steel.

But I think, partly because of his amazing blog post on how he did it, my favourite is Ch00ftech Industries who adapted a pair for 2012 New Year's Eve partying...

Massada 2012 optical collection: Metropolis and Belle de Jour

Massada heads to Paris to shoot its latest glasses collection, inspired by European cinema by the likes of Fritz Lang and Luis Buñuel, and in the process presents some simply beautiful frames in rich, luxurious acetate.

We're particularly excited by the terrific cat's eye Metropolis.

Top to bottom:  Metropolis, Solaris, Belle de Jour and Sunset Boulevard, left.

Below are close-ups of Metropolis, Belle de Jour and The Cube.

Prices start at €205 or $264.

Oliver Goldsmith launches OG kids' sunglass range: Mini Icons

It is refreshing to see that, at last, children are being catered for at the better end of the eyewear quality spectrum. Oliver Goldsmith joins last month's Sons + Daughters in providing high-end shades for the little guys.

Oliver Goldsmith's Mini Icons collection comprises exact replicas of some of OG’s most iconic styles, such as the Carl (black/orange above) and Sophia (blue above),  but made smaller for the style-savvy adolescents, 4-14 year olds. Hover over images for frame names and the year the grown-up versions were originally made.

Priced at a very reasonable £95, OG Mini Icons are available in February 2012.