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Once every two years I have to fight a personal battle. The last one ended in April 2004 and the next round started today with a simple eye test and, as predicted, I need stronger prescription spectacles. I always do. And it’s at that point, when the optician suggests I might like to look at their extensive selection of frames, that the battle starts.
Anyone who wears glasses knows that all optician’s racks are filled, floor to ceiling, with what are irrelevantly labelled as ‘Designer Frames’. And they are all the same. These so-called ‘designers’ have all decided, quite obviously independent of their competing style gurus, that what the world wants and what I just must have perched on my nose are small oblongs. And if you don’t want small oblongs then frankly, you’re buggered.
I have many reasons for not wanting a pair of these insidious small oblongs. For a start, they don’t suit me. I also use varifocals and there just isn’t enough depth in the frame to make that really work. I also want transition lenses and as these things hardly cover the eyes they offer very little comfort from glare. Yet there they all are with their ‘designer’ name tags. All looking the same and all looking awful. What I want, are round ones and the only really round ones you can get today are for kids and have ‘Harry Potter‘ inscribed on them.
Here’s the bloody clincher. I went into four opticians today asking for round frames and they all said exactly the same thing: “We’re always getting asked for those“. One told me they even have the odd customer who brings in their old NHS pair from the 1960’s and 70’s asking for new lenses to be put in them. Believe me, these people know what they’re doing.
So, come the revolution, I want to see all designers of spectacles lined up against that wall. Actually – let’s make that anyone who markets anything with the word ‘designer’ in it.
Hey! I like my small oblongs!
Well, how about that! There’s me, Googling (and not for the first time in the past two years) for “Round Spectacle Frames” and I come across this! Wholeheartedly behind you here! I had to get these bl**dy oblongs – but I made sure they were as “round” as possible! 1995 I buy a lovely pair of round frames, just what I was looking for, OK so the colour’s a bit mad (browny-ginger and yellow) by they are ROUND! Ten years on – and they really do all look the bloomin’ same, Designer? More like “Cloner” Lenses! Why they bother I don’t know! Might as well go back to NHS specs for all the variety we have today!
Well Patrick – there is some good news. A company called Algha make the ‘Saville Row’ collection. Just what we are after. Problem is, you can only buy them at Algha dealers and they are few. You can phone them to find one nearest to you. They are very good, hand made, rolled gold. A bit expensive but will last.
Or – for a really BIG collection visit Opera Opera who are in Covent Garden, London (although you can buy the frames over the net). Not only do they make many, many round frames (although only in plastic) but they have a large stock of old, original NHS wire frames! Called – wait for it – the ‘John Lennon Collection’.
That, alas, seems to be it. And yes – I like the use of the word ‘Cloner’.
Thank you Andy. If only I’d done this a week ago, I could have paid a visit to Opera last Friday (I’m in t’ North) That’s the sort of thing! I like the NHS ad/style chart there. Up until a few years ago I still had my 30 odd year old specs that I had when little – they had arms that took an elastic strap! (Aw bless!)
I have an old 70’s NHS pair of wire frames somewhere. I know I kept them. Since my visit to the optician I have been hunting all over the house but to no avail. And yes – it’s Covent garden here I come! They actualy offer a discount for web sales and will post them to you. Then you just hand them to your local optician for the lens. Job done!
I’m going through an almost identical trauma to you, and Google led me here, ending years of fruitless searching! I’m very tempted to order a pair of frames to let my optician loose on.
Hi Tiny – it’s a shame (from my point of view) that these are in the US. I’d very much like to see and handle a pair. But yes, this might be tempting to just order in and take a chance on! Options are beginning to come out of the darkness! Thanks for the link. Might be the one. Actually – I quite fancy a trip to Louisiana…..
Shall we get together and do a bulk order?
There’s a slightly different selection, handily (optionally) priced in £s, here. My opticians had never heard of this particular range of rounded retro joy when I went in to seek some measurement-based advice this morning, so I would guess ordering from the USA is the only option. And if it all turns out disastrously, they can always be disposed of on eBay, where you’ll also find what I suspect are older incarnations of the range: it seems like the franchise has bounced around a bit over the years.
My only resevation here is that whilst they look like decent frames – they are not actually round. They are ‘almost’ round though. The pair I used to illustrate the article (top) are fully round – which was what I was after. Having said that, they are cheap enough so it might be worth a try. I’m certainly coming close to a decision on where to put my money!
I appreciate your reservations as to their lack of ultimate roundness, but they’re still more circular almost all the competition. Since I’ve been after a pair of “John Lennon glasses” for at least a decade, I’m not going to complain too loudly, especially as these appear to be the genuine Yoko-approved article. Anyway, the deed is done: shipping seemed a bit pricy at £17.01, and I’ll almost certainly get clobbered for customs charges, but what price realising a dream?
Shipping is a bit steep. Still – you should get them quickly. I’m expecting photos of them being worn…
1st October 2007 Today trawled every optician in Bedford but no round glasses available, only those horrible little oblong things by the thousand. I don’t want to be a fashion slave, and I don’t want to be a sheep. I just want to see! What’s wrong with these stores? As I explained to a completely baffled (and obviously not very bright) optician, "Look very carefully at my eyes, see? They are round!"
And I am being told that round frames are going to be the ‘next thing!’
Hi! I’d forgotten about this!
Just to let you know I was down in London back in June and picked up a lovely pair of round "vintage" wire frames from Opera – at £165 they were no more than the cheapest "squaries" at Specsavers – They warned me not to break them ‘cos they don’t make ‘em any more! Next time I’m down I’ll probably get some plastic ones too methinks! Many thanks for the info!
If anyone is still reading this (I just arrived via a web search), you might like to know that the Savile Row line suggested by Andy may not actually be made or exclusively distributed by Algha. This site claims that a company called Berkshire Chase is the current manufacturer. The model which interested me, so they claim, was actually worn both by John Lennon and by the actor playing Harry Potter in the movies (silver-colored for the former, black for the latter). It is a perfectly circular model with a padless "saddle" bridge called Warwick. While I don’t know if their claims are legitimate, the glasses certainly look the part.
Berkshire Chase are the official US importer and distributer of Algha frames and their Saville Row collection. They are in Pennsylvania. Algha are the manufacturer in London. I have three frames from Saville Row and thoroughly recommend them and yes, they are perfectly round, very comfortable and quality gold.