Cut from
the block. Fitted to
your face.
Panto · lens 49 · bridge 21 · temple 145 · the rim sits 6 mm clear of the cheek · tilt set in the chair
Acetate and titanium frames, designed and made in our Stepney workshop and fitted in the showroom. Then we keep adjusting them for as long as you wear them.
Drag to turn it. Read the small print through the lens. ← → turn · ↑ ↓ tilt · 1 2 3 shape
Four numbers and a cheek.
The bridge comes first. Everything else on a frame is measured from where it sits.
The bridge meets your nose where it is widest — most of ours sit at — and we open or close it until the weight rests on bone, not on the soft part below. The lens width places your eyes just inside the centre of each rim: on a panto.
The temple runs straight back from the hinge and turns down behind the ear, never over the top of it. is where we start; the bend itself is made in the chair, on you. Last, the cheek: when you smile, the rim should still sit about clear of it, so the front never rides up. Get those four right and a heavy acetate front wears lighter than it looks.
The small print you read through the lens Panto · lens 49 · bridge 21 · temple 145 · the rim sits 6 mm clear of the cheek · tilt set in the chair
A few new shapes a year.
Each collection starts from one idea about where a front sits, then goes to the bench as three shapes.
Thickset
Heavy fronts cut from thick acetate, squared off and bevelled deep so the layers show at the edge.
Keyhole
Pantos with the bridge cut as a keyhole, so the front rests across the nose, not on it.
Hairline
Titanium fronts as fine as a pencil line, with acetate tips at the ear.
Any shape can be made in any acetate on the shelf.
The acetates
Acetate is laid up in coloured sheets, pressed into a block, then cut, stretched and folded, so no two fronts from one block are quite alike. These are four we keep on the shelf.
Drag the block up or down, or the rail beside it, to cut deeper.Drag the rail beside the block to cut deeper.
Blocks drawn for this page, from the way each acetate is laid up.
From the block
Every Keyhole front starts as a sheet cut from a laminated block, is milled to its shape with the lens holes and keyhole left in, spends days turning in a drum of wood chips until every edge goes soft, gets its shine back by hand at the wheel, and is only finished once it is fitted: temples bent to your ears, the bridge set to your nose, the rim just clear of your cheek.
Bridge first, always. If the bridge sits right, the rest is easy.
Refit, repolish, rehinge.
Any frame we’ve made can come back for as long as you wear it. Temples bent again after a summer on the dashboard, a front taken back to shine, a hinge pin swapped, pads reset. Bring it in; it goes back on the bench it came from.
Sit down. We’ll do the rest at the mirror.
You sit. We look at you straight on, then in profile.bridge first The frame goes on, comes off, goes on again. We warm the acetate and set the temples behind your ears,temples warmed, then bent open the bridge a hair, and check where the rim meets your cheek when you smile.checked in profile
Bring your prescription and we’ll have lenses made to it for the frame you choose.
Book a fitting in Stepney.
Come to the showroom in Stepney. A fitting takes as long as it needs; bring the frame you wear now if you have one.