Our new collection of spectacles is drawn from the late 1920s, when London stood as the optical capital of the world. The city’s dominance had begun nearly two centuries earlier, when the first optical workshops opened in Clerkenwell in the mid-18th century.

By 1750, a new industry was taking root, and within a few generations hundreds of workshops clustered around Clerkenwell’s narrow streets – Hatton Garden, Gray’s Inn Road, and King’s Cross Road – making it the unrivalled centre of global spectacle-making.It was here, in this dense constellation of workshops and trades, that London’s reputation was forged. And by the 1920s, the industry reached its Golden Age, a time of smoky cafés and crowded pavements, when new materials and experimental constructions reshaped the language of eyewear.

Gone were the strict rounds and ovals of the past; in their place came sharper brows, softened squares, and daring depths.To create our four new frames, we traced this restless spirit back through the archives. Visiting the College of Optometrists in London, and studying the traditional constructions and lens forms that once made the city’s optical industry revered around the world.

Each frame is built with a Burleigh joint. A distinctive interwar hinge, metal to metal, engineered for strength and clarity of line. Its precision lends an architectural sharpness, echoing the mechanical ingenuity of the era.

For the first time, we have also worked in Takiron acetate. The world’s most esteemed acetate, first founded as Takigawa Celluloid in Osaka in 1919. Denser and harder than conventional acetates, every millimetre is high density, giving the frame greater strength while allowing for more slender, elegant silhouettes. Its surface can be polished to a glorious lustre, revealing a depth and radiance that only intensifies with age.

The five new hues – Crimson Wash, Indigo Wash, Sepia Wash, Sienna Wash, and Ink Wash – are rich, vibrant tones with a subtle translucency, recalling the washes of pigment found in 1930s illustration and print.

Our Golden Age campaign was photographed at Jiyu Gakuen Girls’ School, in Toshima, Tokyo, a masterpiece of early modern architecture, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1921.The building, known as the “House of Tomorrow,” embodies Wright’s philosophy of simplicity, harmony, and craft. Its low, horizontal lines are clad in warmōya stone, punctuated by long bands of windows that draw light deep into the interiors. The proportions are modest, almost domestic, with timber details and geometric forms that reflect both the Prairie School and Wright’s growing interest in Japanese tradition.
Inside, light filters through latticed glass and wooden frames, creating a rhythm of shadow and illumination. The atmosphere is serene yet precise — a place designed for contemplation and learning, where modernism meets intimacy.

A century on, the Golden Age lives again; four frames that honour the optimism, invention, and quiet grandeur of optics’ finest decade.