Fans of Frédéric

With the surname of Beausoleil, roughly translated as 'beautiful sun', it was highly fitting that French optometrist Frédéric Beausoleil would go into the design and manufacture of sunglasses.

Having graduated in 1986, he didn't wait long to escape optical practice and channel his love of sculpture into eyewear design, setting up Lunettes Beausoleil in 1987.

Such is the success of the company that he established his own factory for Beausoleil's zyl work in Nantes in 1990, where 14 staff are employed in the manufacture and hand finishing of the acetate designs. The coating, colouring and hand-finishing of his metal frames, made in the Jura and Japan, is also carried out there. Even with such labour-intensive work, Beausoleil describes his eyewear as having a good balance between quality and price.

Attending a practice showcase of his product at Mallon & Taub in London's Marylebone High Street last month, he explains that he was trained by an old spectacle manufacturer in Paris and inspired by the horn and tortoiseshell eyewear of the 18th Century. He was particularly fascinated by a six-barrel hinge that was no longer in production, and reintroduced it as a design feature that has come to symbolise his eyewear.

He describes his sunglass styles as pure and simple, clean, neo-classic designs that are logo-free, with a relationship between colour and form. These, he says, appeal to a particular type of wearer. 'Sunglasses demand a fashion name and really our customers are clientele who do not want to wear a big brand name.'

Beausoleil describes one large men's model as 'huge but extremely elegant, for a rich person who doesn't want to look rich'. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the brand's status among celebrities, as seen by the press pack, which lists wearers from Robert de Niro to Robert
Redford, Julia Roberts to Robin Wright Penn. Beausoleil clientele tend to be from the major cities, from New York to LA, he adds.

Sunglasses are noticeably big – acetates in rich colours, that are wraparound while still lightweight, some clearly taking their influence
from the 80s. 'We are playing with 6- and 8-base and the size has been big for some time,' says Beausoleil.

As men are more conservative, 70 per cent of sunglass styles are aimed at women. Some of the feminine designs are adorned with hand-made crystals, for example champagne on horn acetate, amethyst on purple, black diamond on black, while others have laser-cut matt finishes.

The diamanté styles are conservative from the front – it's only when the wearer moves that you can see the glamour of the sides, says Beausoleil.