Saturday 31 December 2011

Ewe Year Glasses: pure new wool and perfect stitches

Ewe Year Glasses: pure new wool and perfect stitches. Miraco's Miracle Megane knitted frames


Ewe Year Glasses: pure new wool and perfect stitches. Miraco's Miracle Megane knitted frames
Ewe Year Glasses: pure new wool and perfect stitches. Miraco's Miracle Megane knitted framesThis time last year, I noticed that transposing two letters in Eye Wear Glasses made Ewe Year Glasses, which sounded a bit like New Year Glasses. 
In a vague attempt to justify this pun I mentioned sheep. Keen to repeat my discovery for 2012, I have again tracked down sheep-related glasses, in the shape of these Miracle Megane knitted frames. These have been made especially for Christmas by Japanese brand Miraco.They're available from Zozo and are lenses-free.
Happy Ewe Year! "Pure new wool and perfect stitches," comes from this little ditty by the Sultans of Ping FC...

Friday 30 December 2011

Mykita & Moncler: the best winter sunglasses for 2012?


Mykita & Moncler 'Achille': the best winter sunglasses for 2012?

Mykita & Moncler 'Achille': the best winter sunglasses for 2012?

Mykita & Moncler 'Achille': the best winter sunglasses for 2012?

Sorry for the lack of posts – have been away and then Christmas kind of took over. Trust everyone's had a cracking time and you've received all the goodies you wanted!

Sunday 11 December 2011

Massada 2012 optical collection: Metropolis and Belle de Jour

Massada 2012 optical collection: Metropolis

Massada 2012 optical collection: Solaris


Massada 2012 optical collection: 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.
Massada 2012 optical collection: Metropolis

Massada 2012 optical collection: Belle de Jour

Massada 2012 optical collection: The Cube

Thursday 8 December 2011

Oliver Goldsmith launches OG kids' sunglass range: Mini Icons

Oliver Goldsmith Mini Icons sunglasses: Bude (1959)

Oliver Goldsmith Mini Icons sunglasses: Lord (1961)

Oliver Goldsmith Mini Icons sunglasses: Glyn (1971)Oliver Goldsmith Mini Icons sunglasses: Glyn (1971)Oliver Goldsmith Mini Icons sunglasses: Bude (1959)Oliver Goldsmith Mini Icons sunglasses: Lord (1961)Oliver Goldsmith Mini Icons sunglasses: Sophia (1967)
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.

Oliver Goldsmith launches OG kids' sunglass range: Mini Icons

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Theo x Tim Van Steenbergen: the Hierro sunglass collection

Any collaboration between Theo and Tim Van Steenbergen pleases the eye, and this fourth meeting of brands is no different: a limited edition sunglass collection, Hierro.

The inspiration came from Spanish embroidery and a long-held tradition of leather working. Hierro means iron or brandmark. Every hacienda has its own logo and these sunglasses are 'branded' in metal either with a Theo or Tim Van Steenbergen emblem.

Each frame is named after a Spanish patron saint: above is Isidro, and below, Jaime and Mercè. Neither leather nor embroidery is actually used but it looks extremely convincing.

Monday 5 December 2011

Mogadishu by L.G.R: Original frame shapes handmade in Italy

Mogadishu by LGR: Original frame shapes handmade in Italy

No one else makes such a lavishly good range of sunglasses better than L.G.R, and Mogadishu, above, is one of the most original frames we've seen in a long time. The aviator lenses rotated slightly toward the bridge, while sitting in their chunky frame with a squared browline offer something unique. And of course, as you'd expect from L.G.R, some of the best acetate materials you'll ever come across. Below, also new for 2012, are Niger and La Polverosa...
Niger by LGR: handmade in Italy

La Polverosa by LGR: handmade in Italy

Sunday 4 December 2011

Willems Wonderglasses: a pizza perfection



This is of course a family website, so anyone of a sensitive disposition should  simply enjoy the campaign image above from Willems Wonderglasses and this frame from its titanium collection, Charlotte. But for those who want to know where to buy the perfect pizza, we present this little takeaway....

Saturday 3 December 2011

Christian Dior 2011/12 glasses: the Godron statement


Christian Dior's fall/winter 2011/12 optical collection features the Godron decoration – the parellel lines at the edge of the frame and towards the hinge. This detail, inspired by fluting on Louis XVI's chair, is also used on many vintage Dior frames and sunglasses.

Wednesday 30 November 2011

Sonic sunglasses from GILES for Cutler and Gross


These are Sonic by GILES for Cutler and Gross, the third time the British designer Giles Deacon has collaborated with C&G and they're a bit bloody good aren't they?

They come in Flesh with smoky lenses, "Grubby White" with brown lenses (above) , Red with bright red lenses and Black with electric blue lenses, as shown below. They're £350 and become available in December.

Meanwhile, Cutler and Gross this week launches its first "shop-in-shop" at the brilliant Eyeworks boutique in Kensington, London. More than 70 frames will be available from Cutler and Gross's spring/summer 2012 collection and vintage archive.

Eyeworks owner Brenda Mckernan says the London customer is looking for "something different to the standard commercial brands that everyone is so bored of seeing on every optician’s shelves". Well said Brenda - that's what we like!

Monday 28 November 2011

When the specs seem to shine like you've had too much wine, that's A-Morir

A-Morir Bootsy sunglasses


A-Morir Lizzy sunglassesA-Morir Bootsy Supreme sunglassesA-Morir, the eyewear collection by Kerin Rose, is bigger and better than when we first featured them in 2009. A breath of fresh air in a world of copycat collections and me-too mediocrity. 8)

Top to bot: Bootsy, Lizzy, Supreme and Sylvia Brown.

A-Morir Sylvia Brown sunglasses

Friday 25 November 2011

Jimmy Choo 2012 sunglasses: Belle in black

Jimmy Choo 2012 sunglasses: Belle

Jimmy Choo 2012 sunglasses: Belle

These are Jimmy Choo Belle sunglasses in black for 2011/2012. Black Friday means there are plenty of good offers on sunnies, such as at Solstice, where all sale item can get an extra 30% off by using promo code TAKE30.  Sale ends November 28, 2011. But I doubt these Jimmy Choos will be in the sale as they're brand spanking new!

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Retrosun: free prescriptions for vintage frames for next 48 hours!



Every now and then we spot a good offer that we have to share with the (cool-)glasses-buying public...

Retrosun is offering free prescriptions in its vintage sunglasses for the next 48 hours. Brands include Hugo Boss, Christian Dior, Carrera, Cazal and Gucci. Quick!..

Sunday 20 November 2011

Vintage Oakley Frogskins from Lunettes London


Lunettes London specialises in genuine, vintage frames from yesteryear and we were particularly taken by these Frogskins by Oakley. Great lenses too! 8)


Saturday 19 November 2011

Beyond the hinge: ProDesign Denmark's Axiom collection




Eye Wear Glasses often gets a bit carried away when presented with new, innovative hinges and ProDesign Denmark's Axiom design is no different. In fact you could argue that this hinge is barely a hinge at all, it's so simple. EWG has had a good play with it and find the open-close action strangely addictive!! And as can be seen from this video, the Axiom collection comes in numerous shapes and colours...
   

Music added by EWG: Ain't What You Do by DoDo Green

Saturday 12 November 2011

Eyewear: A Visual History - another optical opus reviewed

A model with the latest styles of spectacles, 1956. Copyright: Getty Images


Five hundred years of spectacles, from classic to outrageous. Courtesy TASCHEN
You wait all year for an eyewear book and then two come along at once. New York eyewear designer Moss Lipow's Eyewear: A Visual History, at 360 pages, is a bigger book than Cult Eyewear, reviewed here last month. It's a very different hardback, but equally compelling.

Eyewear is for flicking through. Each page is marvellously illustrated with carefully photographed life-size frames, most of which come from Lipow's own collection. As well as this array of stills, he has sourced amazing pictures such as this one above (1956) from old magazines, catalogues, advertising and films.

Lipow begins in the first chapter - pre-1900 - at the very beginnings of glasses, charting the history of the early optical devices. There are lorgnettes, optical fans, scissor spectacles, pince-nez and monocles, but it's the second chapter on 1900-1945 in which you really begin to appreciate the extent of his glasses collection.

I was intrigued by the story linking sunglasses and billiard balls, and the detail provided around some early cat's eye designs and driving glasses is enlightening. Eyewear is providing Eye Wear Glasses with some much need early eyewear education! Brands to be found in this chapter include Shuron, American Optical, Bachman Bros and Montgomery Ward and some Bausch & Lomb aviators from the 1940s. There's even a pair of 1920s protective glasses from the Soviet Union.

The middle section covers the post-war sunglass boom, between 1945 and 1960. Find out here how the demise of ornamental hair combs is linked to eyewear manufacture. And it's from here on in that the book becomes an absolute joy with page after glorious page of amazing eyewear designs. The chapter on the 1960s is superb, with a focus on op-art, featuring contributions from Silhouette, Pierre Cardin, Spec-Trim, Renauld, Ray-Ban, Paulette Guinet, Oliver Goldsmith, Pierre Marly, Oleg Cassini (below) and American Optical (next down).

Continues below...


Five hundred years of spectacles, from classic to outrageous. Courtesy TASCHEN

Above: Shutter sunglasses by Alain Mikli. Above those: are Italian metal sunglasses from Maga Design. And the big blue ones above those are Futura sunglasses from Silhouette. These final three feature in the final chapter, The Age of the Licensed Brand which features yet more amazing styles from Christian Dior, Bollé, Cazal, Moschino by Persol, and some astonishing Jean-Paul Gualtier sunglasses by Murai of Japan.

I particularly like the inclusion of Taiwan or Korea-made sunglasses alongside the Western brands, and Lipow describes the ramifications of Asian-made eyewear on the West's eyewear industries; he even features a Taiwanese "knockoff" of Alain Mikli's famous 'Picasso' 030 frame, directly opposite the genuine spectacle.

Moss Lipow's book is a eyewear design treasure trove, providing exactly the visual history its title promises. It's eyewear eye-candy, at times you don't know where to look! His writing is entertaining and informative and includes numerous little-known gems. But this book is first and foremost about the images, approximately 1,200 of them and every one is presented at a scale such that you can spot wonderful detail. Well worth investing in!

Hover over images for photo credits.

Eyewear - A Visual History - German, English and French edition. Copyright: TASCHEN. The sunglasses featured are Sunspec, Sol-Amor, France, late 1950s

Eyewear: A Visual History by Moss Lipow.
Published by Taschen. UK £34.99, US $59.99, €39.99. 360pp. English/German/French.
ISBN 978-3-8365-2565-7

Also available in Italian/Portuguese/Spanish.
€39.99. ISBN 978-3-8365-2780-4

Buy your copy here:
UK | USA | Deutschland 
España | France | Italia

Monday 7 November 2011

Sons + Daughters Eyewear: so slick you'll wish they were bigger

Sons + Daughters Eyewear: so slick you'll wish they were bigger

Sons + Daughters Eyewear: so slick you'll wish they were bigger

Sons + Daughters Eyewear: so slick you'll wish they were bigger
Sons + Daughters Lenny sunglasses

Kids' eyewear is rarely top-quality. It's kind of assumed children's sunglasses will get sat on or lost, so why invest? 

But EWG thinks more frames probably fall apart because they're cheap and poorly made.

So we're interested to hear about Canadian brand Sons + Daughters that says its glasses are "so slick that parents will be wishing they came in big head sizes".

Certainly looks good: we particularly like Lenny in orange... a bit bigger please!

Sons + Daughters Lenny sunglasses