Spectacle + Donovan Bailey x KVA

Recently Olympic Gold medalist and national hero Donovan "The Worlds Fastest Man" Bailey stopped by the Queen St shop for an eye exam, and to peruse our fine selection of cutting edge eye and sun wear.

For those of you too young to remember Donvoan on the track here is a photo to jog your memory, ha ha ha



After trying out a couple of different looks Donovan settled on the Oliver Peoples KVA designed in tandem with Kris Van Assche. Here's the write up on them straight from the people at OP

KVA is a collaboration with European Designer Kris Van Assche, who is now the Artistic Director for Dior Homme. The frame is hand-crafted in thick polished plastic and is just as sophisticated as it is sporty. Unique technology includes a coin-edge mechanism that allows for changeable lenses (two different lens colors are included), offering the wearer greater opportunity to define his personal style. Metal inlay with the KVA logo is detailed on the top of the frame front.

And here is Donovan looking pretty cool with his little slice of Spectacle style and Darren (the worlds slowest white boy) looking pretty wide eyed with suprise


We may never be able to catch up to you Donovan but Spectacle still loves youTweet

Oliver Goldsmiths from England with Love

Yesterday's mail had a little extra something special just in time for the weekend, a new shipment of Oliver Goldsmiths

We've covered the history and awesomeness of the brand before but the proof they say is in the pudding so without further ado here are some of the staff favorites form the new arrival, feel free to come by and try em on, just say Audrey sent you




The Audrey


Fred and Renzo

Spectacle loves Oliver Goldsmith, because there is a 50's movie star in all of us.Tweet

Top 5 Sunglasses for Spring 2010

Normally the gray January weather would have most Torontonians in a downward funk; but the warmer-than-normal temperatures inspired the lovely Stacey from Front Row mag to stop by our Queen St shop to eyeball some of the coming trends for the spring.


Stacey's top picks for this upcoming spring:

Hip Hop: Cazal Mod 865, vintage, $1,250

Urban: Retro Super Future, black flat tops, $250

Front Row: Dita Darkness, black and 24k gold, $900

Sex Bomb: Dita Sunbeam, teal, $430

London revived: Cutler and Gross Mod 0736, $425

Good eye Stacey, stop by anytime...and remember...Spectacle Loves You!!!Tweet

Anne et Valentin...Coming Soon to a Spectacle Near You

It's been a pretty busy week at the shops, but we were lucky enough to meet up with Anne-Marie from Anne et Valentin this week. Usually we'd have to travel to Paris or NYC to see the collection in person, however Anne-Marie was in town and stopped by the Yonge St location to show us the latest and greatest from the AetV collection.


Original and rich in colour, the collection is easy to wear, even in the case of the shyest client who dares not dare.


In particular the Factory models were duly crafted with a combination of smooth, polished lines and then re-cut to give a raw, unfinished polish to offer a juxtaposing look on the same frame. You gotta check them out when them come in!

You can view the collections at both our Distillery District and Yonge St locations..and remember...Spectacle Loves You!Tweet

Mag's with Hot Taste!

Recently, your's truly helped some of our local magazines to accessorize!
Check It!

Lush (fashion + art) www.lushmag.com
Oliver Goldsmith Sunglasses - Limited Edition Love Me

American Essentials (New York) www.americanessentials.com
Paul Smith - PS 282
Culter and Gross - 692Tweet

Blog TO Loves Spectacle

The supremely intelligent people over at Blog TO have posted their favorite eyewear stores in the city and guess who was number one ????

That's right, us.



Check out the whole article
RIGHT HERE

All this praise has us blushing.

Thanks Blog TO, Spectacle Loves YouTweet

(Super) Hot Super frames back @ Queen St

Lace up the running shoes kids, a couple of very in demand frames just showed up at our Queen St store.

The all black classic and all black ciccio Supers are here.

We are still waiting for the black flat tops (thanks for calling though) and the rest of our SS2010 order to come in Feb, stay tuned to the blog for us to announce when they arrive.

In the meantime here is some goodness to get you through until the rest of the collection shows up.

Spectacle Loves You



Classic Shape



CiccioTweet

Dita "Vavoom" Collection Now at Spectacle

The fine folks at Dita have stepped it up this season.

Sick of being grouped in with other "high end" brands whos production values and quality seem to secondary compared to the hype they bestow upon themselves, Dita has created a new sub collection that along with Lancier(Check out our post about that here)are the evolution of their brand.

Here is the press release for Vavoom.

Vavoom Series, This collection was developed because we at Dita have noticed that lately the term "luxury" has been loosely tossed around in today’s eyewear market. For this collection we wanted to ascertain what luxury means to us; quality, exclusivity, and most importantly craftsmanship are the key requisites in creating a luxurious brand.
We took these three principles of luxury and developed a collection of eyewear for women that not only looks astounding, but also feels remarkable. The frames in this collection are handcrafted from custom zyls in Japan and use large custom titanium hinges with hex screws plated in 24k gold. We have laser-etched a crocodile pattern into the temples that give the frame a look and feel as if it were wrapped in authentic crocodile. Spectacle will be one of the first boutiques to release the collection in limited quantities.

Here is the newest addition to team Spectacle, Emma showing of some vavoom herself with the model called Darkness. Note that faux croc case in her hand.



And here is a product shot of the tortoise shell model, check those 24k screws, yowza!



Both of these beauties are now in the Queen St store and available to view via appointment at our other loving locationsTweet

Spectacle and Legacy

One of our favorite brands at Spectacle is Oliver Goldsmith, in fact it's Daniel's absolute number one favorite brand, he says so all the time.

Maybe its the rich history of the brand. celebrity clients include Audrey Hepburn, Princess Grace Kelly, and Peter Sellers to name a few. Maybe its the unique yet classic designs or maybe its the fact that the frames look so freaking cool on him(Im betting on the last reason)

You can imagine his excitement when we told him Spectacle will be exclusively carrying the newly launched Clair Goldsmith collection, Legacy. We're still try to peel him of the ceiling.

Clair is Oliver Goldsmith's great granddaughter and has been running the legendary line for the last few years.

Here is the press release for the debut collection.

London – September 2009. LEGACY, the debut collection from Claire Goldsmith, great granddaughter of the iconic eyewear designer Oliver Goldsmith will be launching in stores internationally in February 2010. Comprising of 10 styles in 5 different colourways, the LEGACY range promises to push the boundaries of eyewear design, in keeping with her impressive design heritage.

Having spent the last 4 years re-launching the Oliver Goldsmith brand, working with her grandfather’s designs from the family archive which spans over 70 years of eyewear fashion, Claire’s decision to launch her own line of uniquely designed frames was inevitable.

Claire Goldsmith says, “The collection has been designed by the team I have put together since re-launching the Oliver Goldsmith brand. The OG re-launch has been incredibly well received and the classic designs taken from the archive once again can be seen to be worn on some of the coolest faces out there. But vintage is just one trick and we can do so much more. LEGACY represents the future”
Combining timeless designs with contoured and bold frame shapes, the LEGACY collection is made in Italy using the high standards of craftsmanship and advanced manufacturing techniques that have become synonymous with the Goldsmith name.

and beacause Spectacle Loves You here are a few pictures of the frames to come.










Stay tuned to this blog for the announcement of their arrival. Then hurry down before Daniel sells them all to his friends.Tweet

Breaking Optical News. Mikli buys Vuarnet

We have it on good authority from some inside sources that the createur de lunettes himself Mr Alain Mikli has brought majority stakes in Vuarnet France and will focus on reviving the line.



For those of you that are children of the 80's you definetley remember those kids on the school yard who were just slightly cooler then you and had Vuarnet shirts and Glasses

In fact to jog your memory here are some photos of the Vuarnet's we have in our fabulous vintage section





To continue our trip down memory lane, here is a little bit of backround on Vaurnet.
Two French opticians Roger Pouilloux and Joesph Hatchiguian who had come up with a patented "Skilynx" lens approached 1960's French Olympic Ski champion Jean Vaurnet to partner up with them while he was on the slopes.
Jean Vaurnet in action

Vaurnet the brand went on to big success with one of the first athlete endorsment contracts in history. They were an offical sponser of the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984 and will be worn by the French ski team at Vancouver 2010.

What the future holds for Vaurent only one very very creative French man knows



Spectacle can't wait, can you?Tweet

Spectacle Family Christmas Photos

When you work at the worlds best optical what do you give your family for Christmas??

Glasses of course.

Now that the holiday season has passed lets look back at these photos and share a laugh.

Spectacle Staff's White Christmas
"
Spectacle Exclusive" Supers, IC!Berlin Leo K and Vintage Cazals

Darren's family... An Oliver Peoples Christmas

Oliver Peoples Ilsa, Mosley Tribes Paladino and Hagen

Audrey's Electro Xmas

OP Ilsa and Mosley Tribes DelroyTweet