Spectacle Frames

About Our Frames

We love glasses and we love our current frame selection, stocking around 700 frames at Featherston Street and about 330 at our Molesworth Street practice. Our stock has an emphasis on quality European design -  Anne & Valentin, Face A Face and LaFont from France, Lara D, Blackfin and Mad in Italy from (yes, you guessed it) Italy, Dutz from Holland, Prodesign from Denmark and Ic! Berlin from Germany. Closer to our side of the world, LA Eyeworks from the USA and Jono Henessy from Australia continue to produce colourful and exciting models. Our range is always changing and new products arrive almost every week. We've been selling glasses frames for almost 50 years, so we have some treasures from the 1970s and 80s hiding around our stores.

We also stock a range of kids and baby frames, including brands such as Nano, Tomato and Active. Having access to supplier catalogues gives us freedom to offer alternative options for shapes, sizes and colours. 
 

Choosing a Frame

If you find choosing a frame challenging we aim to change that. We try to make the whole experience pleasant and easy and it's certainly sociable and interactive. We're on hand to help you choose something to suit your face shape, your prescription and your budge. To help you see yourself clearly when you're trying frames on we can organise some temporary contact lenses or you can use our handy ipad to take digital images. Of course we  provide opinions and you can take frames home so your friends and family can comment too.

To help you narrow your frame choices it can be helpful to consider what kind of image you'd like to project and when you're going to wear your glasses. Do you want to look serious and intelligent or cheerful and outgoing? Do you want your frames to make a statement or to blend into the background? Are you going to wear your glasses in the office or mostly at the weekends? Are you looking for a particular colour or shape? Have you considered having more than one pair of frames? You may also want to consider what your frame will be made of - see below.
 

Frame Materials

Metal frames have adjustable nose pads and can be soldered or welded if they break. It's possible for them to weigh only a few grams which helps you forget you're wearing glasses. If you're allergic to nickel or have found your existing metal frame became pitted or corroded over time, you should consider frames made of stainless steel, titanium (40% lighter than steel) or the more flexible B-titanium. Our range of Blackfin frames (made from high quality Japanese titanium) are a great option as are the Ic-berlin range, designed with no screws or welds.

Plastic/acetate frames vary vastly in weight, and most don't have nose pads meaning the weight distribution is more even across the nose bridge, making them a very comfortable option when they fit well. If you're looking for something very light, you'll find Optyl a pleasure to wear.

Some frames are a mixture of metal and plastic, like Lara D's innovative Combi range.