Face à Face glasses for Mad Men and women...

The first pair of decent glasses I ever owned were made by Face à Face; come to think of it, the second pair were too, and these two glasses remind me why.

Neither of these two latest designs from Face à Face's AW2011 collection would look out of place in the offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Top is Ebony, an amazing acetate cat's eye frame, while bottom Kazan, a thin acetate frame similar (although with more colour) to that worn on occasion by Roger Sterling (left).

Both clearly have 1960s roots, but with a modern treatment.

Four fabulous frames from Beausoleil

French frame designer Frédéric Beausoleil of Lunettes Beausoleil never fails to provide something of note in one of his collections. I love this top avaitor spectacle frame - note the graduated shade in the frame moving out either side of the centre.

Ørgreen and Arne Jacobsen special edition Swan chairs and frames

At last month's London Design Festival, Danish eyewear designers Ørgreen Optics joined forces with furniture specialists the Republic of Fritz Hansen to produce a series of Arne Jacobsen Swan chairs featuring the same Copenhagen skyline design as a special edition of eyewear by Ørgreen.

The chairs and eyewear collaboration, pictured here at the EDC London showroom, referred to as the Skyline Edition, marks a new addition to a series of creative projects in the Ørgreen "Playground".

Isson SS2011 sunglasses: Betsy

This is the Betsy frame from Australian brand Isson's Moonstruck Menagerie collection and it's refreshingly original. Obvious nods to 50s and 60s but with a very modern twist.

It's a handmade, black acetate limited-edition frame featuring mirrored lenses. The 'Betsy' has also been included in SS2011 collection in colours Black Rock, Pearl Skin and Green Purple Smoke.

Lunettes Kollektion - simple glasses with a simple name

Clearly it takes a brand with some quality product to have the nerve to call itself a Franco-German translation of "Glasses Collection" and still get taken seriously.

These frames look terrific, but don't just take my word for it (although my word does usually suffice).

The big, annual eyewear exhibition in Japan (IOFT) has just given Lunettes Kollektion the men's frame of the year award.

Lunettes started four years ago in Berlin and has two stores that have specialised in decent vintage stock.

The Lunettes Kollektion however is its own range of vintage-inspired eyewear.




All frames - including "Artsy-Fartsy" which won the award - are produced by small Austrian and Italian manufacturers and although I have not yet held a pair my hands (the only true test of good eyewear), these look top-notch.

Winning an award in Japan is only going to help Lunettes Kollektion's reputation.

I look forward to seeing a pair...

Lindberg 2010 glasses: titanium, acetate and no frames at all

One of the first signs of a good optician is that they stock Lindberg, a Danish framemaker renowned for its top-drawer, lightweight, minimal eyewear with no screws in the hinge.

We begin with Lindberg Strip (model 9531), which features a very feminine, mild "granddad" shape. Next an Acetanium (model 1232) with a terrific tortoiseshell-like colour and finally...

...We don't feature many rimless frames on Eye Wear Glasses, but there is always an exception (model 98).

Mermaids, officers, sunglasses and glasses - Cutler & Gross 2011

Cutler and Gross's collection blew me away a little when I saw it, in its entirity, last week. There really is something for everyone, even mermaids. Great images above from its SS2011 campaign (inspired by Tim Buckley's Song to the Siren) and here's one great frame (1028) which sums C&G up - bold, exciting, with a nod to the past, but making the right statement for 2011...

Dzmitry Samal's back but this time he's made some glasses...

So I admit to being a little confused as to what's real and what's still in the design stage, because these all look pretty real to me. But they're not.

I featured Dzmitry Samal back in March when he presented some Louis Vuitton concept glasses. Then, as now, he demonstrates his hugely original approach to sunglass creation with not one but three supremely exciting designs...

One of Dzmitry Samal's wonderful designs has been made and can be bought, but which one is it?

(I've installed cutting edge tracking software to detect Googlers and link followers, so go on, take a guess peepers peeps...)

Cheap Monday eyewear - "Open your third eye"

Where've I been? Paris. Back now, with more pictures of glasses... good ones... including previews of styles for 2011. We begin with Cheap Monday, the Scandinavian clothing brand which also makes some supercool glasses. These are Triquetra; a good combination of rounded and angled lines....

Ksubi 2011 glasses - All I need is the air that you breathe

That top one must be one of the best pictures featured here in a while. It feels like yesterday that I featured Ksubi's last set of great photographs but here they are again with gas masks, some weird hook thing, a one-eyed helmet, and some rather grand eyewear.

I rarely quote the promotional material I receive but, "Ksubi 2011 all seeing eyewear range - 'eye, eye' - sees mercenary heavy metal mesh, deserted island floral acetate and duty clerk optical combine for an industrial yet sculpted range." 'Tis true. Eye, eye.