Archive 5: l.a.Eyeworks

California’s Orange County in 1960s might not sound like the most strait-laced places and times to grow up in, but l.a.Eyeworks founders Gai Gherardi and Barbara McReynolds say they were part of a small and rebellious counterculture community that eschewed the conservatism of the ‘Orange Curtain’.

Friends since the age of 15, Gherardi and McReynolds, not only trod similar personal paths, but professional routes too, with both working as dispensing opticians in the 1970s. Both also harboured the dream of owning their own practice that challenged the established norms of eyewear at the time. The l.a.Eyeworks store opened in 1979 and, shortly after, the duo began customising golden era Bausch + Lomb Ray-Bans and Shuron frames in typically rebellious fashion – think drilling, custom dyes and sandblasting. With a finite resource of deadstock products, Gherardi and McReynolds turned their attention to designing their own collections for true creative freedom and expansion.