I was saddened to see last week that Gai Gherardi, who co-founded l.a.Eyeworks had passed away. Gherardi was an absolute trailblazer – a fantastic designer who, along with Barbara McReynolds, created something amazing, at a time when nothing quite like it existed in optics.
I remember reading an article about how they started out buying frames in bulk and reimagining them – customising them completely to put their creations on sale in their Los Angeles store 40 or so years ago, prior to designing their own fabulous collection.
I have always wanted to design eyewear. Unfortunately, the closest I think I will ever get to that is when I took heart-shaped dummy lenses from one frame and sent it to the lab with the metal work from a bright pink rimless frame to ‘create’ a pair of heart-shaped rimless spectacles.
Putting that underwhelming achievement aside, I absolutely love being a spectacle wearer and, just like many of us within the profession, I consider myself somewhat of an eyewear enthusiast. I love hearing about new designs: awesome shapes, interesting frame materials, innovative hinges, small details, new lens options, coatings with jazzy reflex colours.
Last week, the lovely Stephen Jeffery of Marchon, called in to see me with 20 or so frames that change colour in the sunlight. Actual photochromic frames. I ordered them all on the spot (along with one extra that I sold to a patient while Stephen was writing my order up) and I can’t wait to demo them to patients.
At one of my practices, budget is not very important to the majority of our demographic, so whereas we have always displayed frames in order of price at practice number one, over at practice number two we have the frames divided by style – with the sedate, classy, plain designs on one side and the unusual, colourful or downright crazy on the other.
This has worked really well because, in my experience, spectacle wearers tend to fall into two categories: the people who want something more plain and the people who want to try something more daring.
I would love to have one of those jazzy practices that only supply unusual eyewear, but for now, we have opted to cater for patients in both camps.
That being said, when it comes to buying stock, I obviously have the most fun choosing for the patients who want to push the boundaries. If a collection has something brightly coloured, oversized, asymmetrical or otherwise jazzy – I want to see it. I want to stock it and I want to wear it.
One brand that I had my eye on for a little while was Roger Eye Design, and I simply couldn’t wait to order myself a pair of the Toon frames as soon as Hudson Eyewear started carrying them in the UK.
However, rather uncharacteristically, I stopped short of ordering two of his frames that I really liked for myself and thought I had finally found my eyewear limit.
I thought the super angular, completely glittery Miller frame from the Diva range might have been just a step too crazy. I felt that if I wore the XL Xaby frame at the practice, there’d be a patient some day with a tiny PD and a +7.50 prescription who wouldn’t understand that they’d need such a humongous blank size that it would either be impossible to glaze or would just ruin them completely.
I think when Josh Hudson brought them to show me, he was surprised that I didn’t order them. I was definitely surprised, but I didn’t stop thinking about them, and a fortnight ago, I relented. Today, I have brought both pairs home with a huge smile on my face. They are absolutely awesome.
I was speaking to a lovely lady recently about eyewear trends. She shared with me some advice given by her employer when she started in optics. He had said that she should tread with caution, as this industry would make you crazy.
I thought she meant actual crazy, like she might lose her mind, but the advice was that eyewear was becoming progressively zany and that if she wasn’t careful, she would end up wearing crazy spectacles, with her eyewear wardrobe becoming more and more outlandish over time.
She had definitely heeded this advice, and if she were choosing frames in a practice like mine, she’d be in the classy and elegant section – far away from me, in my element with the neon, heart-shaped and asymmetric designs.
I agreed with her (and still do) that there is a bit of a gap in the market for very high end, top quality frames in sedate styles. While I will ensure that my practices cater to both groups, I will always be most excited about the advances in completely ‘out there’ eyewear and I will always be incredibly thankful for the super talented and incredible designers that make them possible – the Roger Eye Designs, the Barbara McReynolds and the Gai Gherardis of the world.
- Francesca Blackmore is owner and practice manager of Pearce & Blackmore Opticians in the Cardiff area.