Made to Measure and Bespoke

We believe that one size fits one. Every Bespoke and Made to Measure commission begins with understanding your face in extraordinary detail. Using our patent-pending scanning technology, we record every contour of your beautiful face to sub-millimetre precision. The scan creates a permanent “last” of your head – a complete digital record of all the key measurements that matter optically and anatomically. Bridge height, crest width, temple angle, pantoscopic tilt, ear position; all the tiny variations that make your face yours are captured, and then become the foundation on which your frame is designed.
Only once we have this data do we begin the process of designing your frame and refining the fit. Together we explore silhouettes, discussing how you want to look and how you need to see. You might be drawn to something scholarly and round, something sharp and angular, or something so subtle that it almost vanishes. You may prefer a slender, barely-there construction, or a bold, architectural front. We talk about how you actually use your spectacles – reading, desk work, cycling, screen time, late nights – and how they should behave throughout your day. All of this helps us find the right outline before we begin to adjust the dimensions around your scan.

Colour is its own chapter. We work with an extended library of over 300 acetates, including rich monos, translucent washes, delicate fades, and textured havanas, alongside metal finishes and combinations for hybrid constructions. You can lean into understatement or make something unapologetically expressive. We look at skin tone, hair, and clothing, and how the frame should sit within that. Sometimes the right answer is a quiet, deep tortoiseshell that reveals itself only in sunlight. Sometimes it is a confident, saturated hue. Whatever you choose, the colour is not a last-minute decision but a deliberate part of the design.

When they come to write your biography, it’s the subtlest of details which reveal the grand schema. Tiny decisions of taste which tell us everything.

Made to Measure is where Cubitts comes closest to quiet magic. It begins with something familiar – a Cubitts frame that already exists in our library – and slowly transforms it into something that could only ever belong to you. Rather than simply choosing between small, medium, or large, you select a silhouette you are drawn to, and we rebuild it around your face, adjusting every key dimension so that it fits you with an almost eerie inevitability. It is not a different size of the same frame; it is your version of that frame.

The process starts with the scan. Using our patent pending technology, we capture your face from every angle, recording its contours down to fractions of a millimetre. The bridge of your nose, the width of your crest, the depth of your eye sockets, the angle at which your temples meet your head, the line of your ears – all of these small details are mapped and stored as a permanent “last” of your head. Traditional spectacle fitting relies on a handful of manual measurements and educated guesswork. Made to Measure replaces that guesswork with data, so that the frame is not just close, but precisely tuned.
Once we have your measurements, we move into selection. You choose a Cubitts silhouette from more than 250 shapes – round, square, panto, angular, delicate, architectural – and then we begin to think about how it should live on your face. The lens size can be increased or reduced, the bridge height and width refined, the temples lengthened, shortened, or subtly reshaped. We talk about how you want to look, but also how you want to feel: lighter on the nose, more secure for cycling, more open for reading, or more enclosing for screen work. You then explore colour from our extended library of acetates and finishes, from quietly dense tortoiseshells and deep monochromes to translucent washes and more expressive combinations. At each stage, the design is guided by the scan, so that aesthetic choices do not come at the cost of comfort or optical performance.

Behind the scenes, our design team takes your chosen silhouette and rebuilds it around your facial data. The bridge is sculpted to match the specific slope and crest of your nose, the frame front is angled to align the lenses with your pupils, and the temples are set to follow the natural line of your head, rather than pushing or pinching. The aim is to remove all those tiny irritations that most spectacle wearers simply tolerate – the red marks on the nose, the frame that slides when you look down, the temple that presses behind one ear – and to replace them with a fit that almost disappears in daily use. If anything is not quite right, our frame fit guarantee means we will continue to refine and, if necessary, remake until it is.
Your Made to Measure frame is then produced through the same careful making process as our Bespoke commissions. It is cut, shaped, and polished in stages, with each surface and edge brought up to a deep, tactile finish. Hinges are set with structural pins, temples are balanced and aligned, and the completed frame is checked against your original design and measurements. Finally, ZEISS lenses are made to your prescription and fitted into the frame, and any chosen engraving is added – perhaps your initials, or the name of the silhouette that has now become yours.
The result sits somewhere between ready to wear and Bespoke. You start with a Cubitts design that you already know you love, and end with a version that belongs uniquely to you. It looks like the frame you chose, but feels like it could never have been made for anyone else.

Some brands think spectacles are an off-the-peg, high-street homogeneity. Let the generic characters shop there. You? You’re different. 

Bespoke at Cubitts is where the idea of a “pair of glasses” becomes something more deliberate – an object designed from scratch around you, your face, and your life. There is no starting silhouette, no reference size, no standard bridge or predefined temple. Instead there is a conversation, a blank page, and the quiet intention to make something that could not sensibly exist for anyone else.

It begins, as with Made to Measure, with understanding your face. Our patent pending scan captures every contour to sub millimetre precision, creating a permanent digital last of your head. But for Bespoke, that scan is not only a fitting tool, it is a design canvas. We study the angles of your brow, the spacing of your eyes, the asymmetries that make your face human and interesting. We look at how you hold yourself, how you dress, what you do for work, how you move through your day. Are these spectacles for the studio, the operating theatre, the stage, the workshop, or for reading in bed at midnight? The answers shape the frame as much as the measurements do.
From there, the design process unfolds in stages. We sketch, model, and iterate, exploring different constructions and characters. You might arrive with a much loved vintage frame that can no longer be repaired, an old photograph of a grandparent, or a very specific vision in your head. You might have never found a frame that quite works, because of a low bridge, a narrow crest, prominent cheekbones, or strong prescription lenses. Bespoke allows us to resolve all of this. We can manipulate thickness to hide lens edge, alter the depth and angle of the frame to clear your cheeks, engineer bridges for almost any nose shape, and bring in design details that are meaningful to you, from a particular joint to a borrowed architectural line.

Material and colour become part of this conversation rather than a final flourish. We might choose a dense, high definition acetate for sharp, graphic lines, or a softer translucent that allows the structure to glow rather than shout. We can work with combinations of materials, integrate custom pins, or specify unusual lens tints and treatments. The palette extends across hundreds of acetates and finishes, but we are always guided by how the frame will live on your face and in your wardrobe, not just how it appears on a table.
Once the design is agreed, the frame moves into prototyping and making. Depending on the complexity, we may produce interim samples – simple “proof” frames or 3D printed mock ups – so that we can refine details in three dimensions before committing to the final construction. When we do, your frame is made through a sequence of hand and machine processes that mirror traditional spectacle making, from cutting and routing to filing, tumbling, and hand polishing. Pins are set, hinges fitted, edges softened, surfaces worked until they feel calm to the touch. ZEISS lenses are then made to your prescription and glazed into the frame, ensuring that the optical performance matches the ambition of the design.
At the end of this process you do not simply receive a pair of spectacles; you receive a record of a design journey. The finished frame carries your measurements, your preferences, and your story encoded in its proportions. It rests on your nose and ears in a way that feels oddly inevitable, as though it were always meant to be there. That is the aim of Bespoke at Cubitts – to take an everyday object and, through attention, engineering, and a little imagination, turn it into something that could not possibly be off the shelf.

At the end of this process you do not simply receive a pair of spectacles; you receive a record of a design journey. The finished frame carries your measurements, your preferences, and your story encoded in its proportions. It rests on your nose and ears in a way that feels oddly inevitable, as though it were always meant to be there. That is the aim of Bespoke at Cubitts – to take an everyday object and, through attention, engineering, and a little imagination, turn it into something that could not possibly be off the shelf.

Every Bespoke or Made to Measure commission begins with a simple question: what should this frame be made from? Material is not an afterthought; it dictates how a frame catches the light, how it feels in the hand, how it sits on the nose, and how it ages over years of daily use. At Cubitts we treat it as a palette, drawing from a carefully built library of acetates and natural materials that allow for quiet subtlety, bold expression, and everything in between.

Our core material is cellulose acetate, and we work with the world’s best two providers.

 We hold over one hundred Mazzucchelli colours in stock, from deep, almost-black havanas and quiet moss greens to soft translucents and confident primaries. Mazzucchelli is probably the most famous acetate maker in the world, not by accident but through history and persistence. The story begins in 1849, when Santino Mazzucchelli opened a small workshop in Castiglione Olona, near Varese in northern Italy, making buttons and combs from horn and bone. Over time, as spectacle making shifted from natural horn and tortoiseshell to modern cellulose-based materials, the company evolved with it, pioneering richly pigmented sheet acetates that could credibly replace the depth of traditional materials. Today, six generations later, Mazzucchelli is still majority family owned, still headquartered in Castiglione Olona, and still setting the standard for colour, consistency, and refinement. 

We also work extensively with Takiron from Japan, renowned for its extraordinary depth of colour and longevity. We stock over two hundred Takiron colours, making us the largest stockist of this beautiful material in the world. First founded in Osaka in 1919 as Takigawa Celluloid, the company has spent more than a hundred years perfecting optical-grade materials with unusual density and clarity. Takiron acetates have a particular character: every surface holds a deep, polished lustre that intensifies over time, rather than dulling with wear. Edges glow when they catch the light, fades blend smoothly from one tone to another, and translucent hues have a glass-like depth. That breadth allows for very precise choices – the difference between two near-identical browns might only be visible in direct sunlight, but it can be the difference between a frame that feels merely good and one that feels absolutely right.

For those who prefer natural materials, we also offer genuine water buffalo horn on request. Horn has its own quiet luxury: warm to the touch, surprisingly light, and alive with subtle grain and tonal variation. No two horn sheets are ever identical, so no two horn frames can be either. As you wear it, the material develops a soft patina and moulds gently with the warmth of your skin, becoming more personal over time. It requires more care than acetate and must be handled with respect, but in return it offers a uniquely intimate relationship between object and wearer.

Whether you are drawn to the industrial precision of Japanese Takiron, the rich heritage of Italian Mazzucchelli, or the organic irregularity of horn, the material you choose becomes the foundation of your frame’s character. Within our Bespoke and Made to Measure services, we use this range not simply to offer “more colours”, but to find the exact tone, translucency, and feel that makes your spectacles feel as though they could not have been made from anything else.