Key Styles

Persol

While Ray-Ban was just a glint in American pilots’ narrowed eyes, Italian optician and photographer Guiseppe Ratti in 1917 invented “Protectors” which took off with air forces worldwide as well as race drivers and, er, poets. (Persol is a contraction of “per il sole”, meaning “for the sun”).

Over a century later, the folding 714 sunglasses that style kingmaker Steve McQueen wore in 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair remains by far the most famous of the brand’s models, but the brand’s opticals also bear the same vintage styling and trademark freccia or arrow on the hinges and arms, “inspired by the swords of ancient warriors”. Not their arrows?

Key Styles

Finlay & Co

Another in the Warby Parker mould, this upstart British start-up has a “rebellious spirit”, which is perhaps why Liam Gallagher wore its Hamilton sunglasses at Glasto. Noel is also a fan of Finlay & Co’s frames, which are sported by staff at several sites of see-and-be-seen member’s club Soho House, as is David Gandy.

The individualistic frames are “handmade by eyewear artisans located in the foothills of the Italian alps”, which is delightfully evocative if nothing else. In addition to eye tests, you’ll find a selection of independent brands in its Soho, London store, including Salt (see below).

Key Styles

Oliver Peoples

Only in America could a brand founded in 1987 market itself as “heritage”. But Oliver Peoples did draw heavily from vintage US frames for its initial understated collections, in sharp contrast to brash, bright late-eighties eyewear.

The Sunset Boulevard institution is a fixture in Hollywood, worn by Patrick Bateman in American Psycho and Tyler Durden in Fight Club. (The limited-edition re-release of the latter model wasn’t in the anti-consumerist spirit, but hey.) Oliver Peoples has also created homages to Gregory Peck’s specs in To Kill a Mockingbird and Cary Grant’s gegs in North by Northwest.