If you know me, you know how much I’m fond of people making things.
Not giant corporations somewhere, and their fashion label empires. Whenever possible, I’d rather put my money in the pocket of the person actually involved in a creative process. In particular when it comes to glasses, real designers are hard to find.
Recently I went on a little designer discovery mission. For a couple of new projects I had a perfect excuse to go try to find something new and interesting.
And did I, ever.
There is this (as of now) tiny shop in Bangkok. Two girls who look like they’re about 25, they design frames, they do the packaging, marketing, sales, Website, everything A to Z. They go to the big shows in Europe and the US and Asia, dreaming of making it in the fashion frame world.
And they should, by all accounts.
Screen grab from my video while visiting the shop.
Here’s the deal.
You can order their frames online, pretty good site. A pair costs somewhere around $120 if you buy them local in Thai Baht. Little side trick, THB is currently totally in the toilet. Cheap shopping times in Bangkok. A little more expensive if you shop online and in USD (~ $200 or so). Price includes, awesomely, the prescription lens of your choice. They don’t skimp either, with a 1.56 index upgrade (20% thinner than a basic 1.50 CR-39). Includes all the coating, very decent lenses.
Some of the frames include clip-on sunglasses too, which are also nicely executed and super useful to have.
And these aren’t just whatever-frames, with some design thrown in.
We’re talking proper Italian acetate shipped off to Japan, where the frames are hand made in small production runs. You get two new collections a year. Whenever they run out, that frame might not be back. I actually grabbed the very last one (scratched up display unit but I insisted) of an interesting all clear frame. Gotta love little tiny shops!
And if you happen to be around Bangkok, it’s absolutely worth stopping in in person and get some first hand suggestion from the frame designer herself.
And their packaging is fancy.
It’s sort of like with food.
Your odds of making healthier food choices increases a lot, when you know where your food comes from. Ideally, not prepared by a corporation.
Anything else, likewise healthier for the social fabric. You might prefer a little local research over feeding faceless accountants and lining the pockets of bankers and stock brokers of some publicly traded corporation. There aren’t any Chinese children in some fire hazard fifth floor walk-up, making these glasses for you.
I did a little unboxing video, but good God I suck at video.
I like these guys. Most glasses look abnormally huge on my face, or just don’t do a good enough job obscuring my features to make me look passably human. Somehow their designs all just work.
She picked out a few, saying “these work well with foreigner faces”. And right she was. Whatever that is, with foreigner faces, I didn’t even ask.
So there it is. Not saying that you should run out and buy frames from the site unseen. Merely regaling you with tales of things.
Incidentally this sunglasses shopping business is related to various other topics. One of which, a trick to challenge your eyes if you’re not quite at 20/20, but close. It involves sunglasses and a bit of getting outside. Hopefully sometime soon I’ll feel properly motivated to write that one up for you as well.
What should we do next? Fix up an unboxing video? Talk about sunglass tricks? Write or video? Tell me what you want!
Cheers,
– Jake
