The world of high quality eyewear is in great shape these days, with lots of great offerings, and lots more, surely, to come. We’ve covered quite a bit of this on the site before, so take a look around for more.
The most well-known of luxury market these days is broken down into the giants of yesteryear — Oliver Peoples, Tom Ford, Garret Leight, etc — and then Jacques Marie Mage. The latter often charges truly ridiculous prices, even compared to the already pricey nature of the other brands in the space. In my experience, I have not had great luck with JMM. I find their frames truly beautiful to behold, but uncomfortably heavy and chunky to wear; plus, they are often not made for faces my size (larger, and in need of longer temple arms).
This is one of the reasons I love the brand Lunetterie Generale. They burst onto the scene a few years ago, are producing super high quality frames, and are not just doing what everyone else is doing, but putting a unique spin on things, producing some truly beautiful shapes and models that I have never seen elsewhere. And while they are pricey, they are half the price of JMM, in the same tier of quality, and allow you to have some truly great, unique pieces that are comfortable and very wearable. What they’re doing is special, and they’re doing a great job of it, so I commend them for that.
They just released their latest collection, and I ordered the frame I liked the most, Golden Hour. I think it’s a truly awesome shape, that clearly comes from a deep understanding of what makes a great pair of glasses. Every detail is considered, and I was a big fan of them from what I saw online. When I got them, though, I was disappointed. The sizing was totally wrong. The website claimed a 50mm lens width, but the temple arms on the glasses said 48mm. By my calipers, they were only 45-46mm. In all, much too small for my face.
This is upsetting for 2 reasons. First, a brand this high end and expensive cannot afford to be making mistakes like this on their website. When you can’t try on the frames without first putting down your credit card number, they’d better make sure that their sizing guides are at least accurate. But second, the frames DO frame my face really well, just too small. If they made these frames in two sizes, one larger than this current one, it would without a doubt be one of my favorite pairs I own. But, instead, I must return them.
Lunetterie Generale, and honestly JMM too (though they do this for some models), needs to start offering multiple sizes of their frames. All the serious brands do. Heck, even Warby Parker now offers this. Golden Hour is one of the nicest frames I have seen in a while, but without multiple sizes, it won’t fit many, many people. If they want wider-spread success, the frames have to work on a larger part of the population. So, it’s truly a shame that they don’t fit, because other than that (and the mis-measuring issues), these are wonderful frames that deserve praise. But, sadly, they won’t be gracing my face, as much as I wish they could.