How Guild makes celebrity-inspired bespoke eyeglasses worthy of Elton John
The city’s funkiest eyewear brand was born in 2013, when Rod Fitzsimmons Frey, a bespectacled computer engineer, couldn’t find glasses that fit his face. Frey (pictured above with creative director Savi Pannu and senior VP Sarah Friend) makes custom frames from cellulose acetate, a sturdy blend of wood and cotton fibres.
Each pair goes through 10 days of shaping, sanding and polishing on a high-tech computer-automated milling machine in his workshop at Dupont and Dovercourt:
Once the frames—including bug-eyed sunglasses inspired by the 94-year-old fashion icon Iris Apfel, thick-rimmed specs modelled after those worn by former Pulp front man Jarvis Cocker and chunky neon shades that would look just right on Rihanna—have gone through the milling process, pieces are assembled by hand in the studio:
Ready-made pieces—such as this fuschia cat eye style, called “PsychoCandy Watermelon”—are available for $250 online, at select opticians, or at boutiques like Brika and Likely General. The bespoke frames go for $800 a pair.
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