Kirk Originals
Cazal
Anne et Valentin
Anne et Valentin
Anne et Valentin
Cassius
During the Afternoon on Saturday and Sunday of the AIFW, the 30th and 31st of January, a Dutch group of fashion dedicated opticians called “Club Brillant” organized a showroom in the Transformatorhuis. The layout of the showroom was very inviting and luxurious, with white leather cube furniture and a curved backdrop, on which promotional video presentations were beamed. The whole experience was very comfortable and enjoyable, as all the representatives were knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their products.
The first optician that I spoke with was Kirk Originals from the UK. The designer and managing director Jason Kirk went to get a coffee for me while Yann introduced the collections to me. The company has a long standing connection with the hand crafted eyewear specialists in France. They use predominately acrylic as their material of choice, which they specially mix themselves. Some frames were also reinforced with metal that glimmered through the transparent acrylic. There were Glitter infused frames that produced cool light effects, one looked gray in low light, but just at that moment a ray of sunlight hit the frame and the gray glitter came alive with tiny shimmers of blue and red. The Culture collection was with fluorescent pink and orange arms that wrap around to the color contrasted front at the temple. The glitter and culture collections are in your face looks for bolder personalities who like to make statements, like the stuff rock stars are made of. There is the Heroes line that has a character associated with each frame model that can be friended on facebook and twittered to provide an interaction between the wearer and the personality of the design. They also had fine hardwoods paired with aluminum for conservative personalities that have a refined look, yet sleek and stylish at the same time.
Monique at CAZAL by Cari Zaloni, a German designer, walked me through the featured collections of lacquered metal and plastic frames. The company reintroduced their original models from the late 70’s and early 80’s which is very popular with today’s younger crowd. Their new line “Nice to meet me” collection for the 60+ set are with lacquered metal frames and interesting filigree patterns at the temple for prescription wearers. Their collections are predominately for women but they do produce also limited models for men. Judging by the reintroduced styles the design style has been maintained through the years incredibly well. Some of the revived designs are reminiscent of the frames that D.M.C. of Run DMC wore as part of the B-Boy aesthetic of Hip Hop in New York back in the 80’s.
I then spoke with Gerrit at Anne et Valentin, the Toulouse, France based opticians, about their collections. He said the company was founded in Toulouse in 1981, and that they have also a shop also in Paris. They design and produce 50 models per year and they are all hand crafted in France’s Jura region, where the traditional eye wear craftsmen are located. He was keen to tell me all about the different collections and modeled a pair of each to give me feel of what they could do for a face. They like to use a range of materials including zamac, titanium, stainless steel, and acetate. The collections were each very uniquely different in material and style. There were horn rimmed styles in the butterfly collection; folded and painted flat metal in the origami collection for the Japanese market; and a 3-D topographic effect in the Level collection. Gerrit told me about a process where they engrave the acetate frame and then by hand they insert a fine stainless steel wire My favorite was a pair of Jackie-O style sunglasses that were tortoise shell on the outside with vintage pink as a contrast on the inside. I was impressed with the very unique designs and production techniques at Anne et Valentin.
The last brand that I spoke with was Cassius by Jason NG located in New Zealand. Timo gave me the low down on Cassius, as he put it the “young and brutal” line of sunglasses. The company is relatively new, with this being their second collection. The models are created for a young avant-garde audience, with the collection defined by new young lines. The company only produces 300 pairs of each model, only produce sunglasses and its target market is the young high street set. The models were all with relatively large lenses, and the ones I had liked the most were the glamorous oversized bug eyes in black. I could imagine Faye Dunaway wearing something similar in the Thomas Crown Affair. They had lots of looks to complete an individual style. They have been featured in Kayne West’s blog and have well known fans such as the Black Eyed Peas.
After seeing so many interesting styles of eyewear, I almost wished I needed to wear corrective lenses so that I would have an excuse to add another accessory to my styling palette.
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