A tentative sun is finally making a regular appearance and temperatures are slowly rising from mildly frigid to mildly warm. British springtime is here and with it sunglasses weather. However rather than wheeling out the same tired old Ray Ban Clubmasters you do every year, why not ironically enter the warmer season with something much cooler?
Forget the usual famous sunglasses designers and major fashion houses. Just a little look longer and you’ll discover a treasure trove of boutique labels and avant garde designers that put the usual renditions of the archetypal solar accessory to shame. From Britain to Japan, re-interpreted classics to the wonderfully unusual, here are the five sunglasses brands you need to know about.
Cutler & Gross
For fairly obvious reasons most sunglasses designers don’t bother with seasons. Winter isn’t exactly synonymous with prolonged sunlight, especially here. Cutler & Gross however treat their field of expertise more like a catwalk collection than an annual accessory, creating fully-fledged themed collections for each fashion half of the year.
Cutler & Gross 1249 Classic Navy Blue (£455)
The designs too are slightly more trendy than most designers can manage, incorporating the latest fashion trends into each collection. A good example is the 1249 Classic. Exploring (apparently) the tension between nature and technology the navy blue acetate frame, brown lenses and unusual shape help show that your own style credentials have teeth. At the very least they’re ridiculously cool – as is Cutler & Gross as a whole.
Finlay & Co Glenmorangie Originals (£300)
Finlay & Co
There are plenty of brands using wooden frames nowadays but none do so with quite as much confidence as Finlay & Co. The West London-based designer’s emphasis on natural hardwoods gives their otherwise classic styles a unique flair. Granted they’ve since started using fine Italian acetate as well, but their best pieces are still wood.
The wood itself is sourced from a variety of sources which has led to one of last year’s coolest collaborations – the Finlay & Co Glenmorangie Originals. The frames are made from repurposed whisky casks of American white oak. It’s a cool story behind some even cooler sunglasses and don’t worry; you won’t smell like an alcoholic.
Thom Browne Black Sunglasses With Gold Mesh Sides Dark Blue Lens ($1,000)
Thom Browne Navy Sunglasses With Gold Mesh Sides & Dark Blue Lens ($1,000)
Thom Browne
Among the sartorially savvy New York designer Thom Browne’s sunglasses are no secret. That said unless you’ve had a cause to delve into the haute couture world of the renowned designer you may have missed them. The 2016 CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year might specialise in tailoring but he applies those same idiosyncratically elegant sensibilities to his eyewear.
His signature optical look frames the actual… er, frames with precious metal mesh which, aside from being a tongue-twister, isn’t a look you see all that often. They take a bit of confidence to pull off but there’s no danger of them being disregarded as yet another wayfarer clone. Plus the combination of blue lenses and golf frames is stunning in and of itself.
Tom Davies
Tom Davies Richmond Sunglasses
One of the few bespoke eyewear studios in Britain – not to mention one of the finest – Tom Davies is where you can go if you’re unsure just what kind of sunglasses you should be wearing. In seconds the designer will tell you the frames to best suit your face and the kind of design that would suit your personal style best.
If however you need a pair in a pinch his ready-to-wear collection is of exactly the same quality, especially when it comes to his signature material: horn. The entire Richmond collection is filled with frames in myriad shades and grains of horn offset with titanium detailing. They may take more looking after than metal and acetate, but they’re well worth the extra care.
Eyevan 7285
Eyevan has actually been going for just over 40 years creating dust-protected eyewear predominantly for the Japanese market. Eyevan 7285 however is far, far more recent. Founded in 2013, the brand is essentially the distillation of those four decades of design, picking and refining the most revolutionary, stylistically timeless frames from Eyevan’s history.
Eyevan Model 759 (€435)
The result is a flawlessly contemporary, effortlessly edgy brand. The glasses are made using artisan techniques but there’s absolutely nothing outdated about them. Take the model 759 for example. The extra-thick lenses allow the frame to be embedded in the glass itself, giving a unique silhouette to an otherwise classic lens shape.
