The Ed Sheeren effect: why bespoke glasses may be the next luxury trend

Oct 17 , 2017

Tom Davies expects to record a £10 million turnover this year.

Awareness of bespoke frames is growing as celebrities start wearing them

Tom Davies didn’t expect his company to be turning over £450,000 (HK$4.54 million) in its first year. Indeed, many people had told him his business idea was crazy. But he had a hunch that the demand for bespoke-made spectacles was there.

Now, 15 years on, this October will see the opening of the British designer’s first factory in Britain, his other one being in China.

Tom Davies measures up a client. Bespoke glasses fit comfortably on the face because all the details are taken into consideration.

“Bespoke eyewear is, in effect, a new category of product, and that’s been confusing to a lot of people,” says Davies, who this year expects to record a £10 million turnover. “But if luxury eyewear used to typically mean glasses from brands the likes of Chanel and Cartier, now a lot of these kinds of brands have moved into the middle ground and they’re all off the shelf. There’s a gap for glasses now that aren’t just of the best materials, but actually fit properly.”

Most people don’t like themselves in glasses because the market has effectively forced a standardised product onto different heads and faces, Davies says. It was this realisation that encouraged him to launch his eponymous line.

“We’re all shaped differently, so the chances of going into an optician with a certain style or colour in mind and expecting one of the available selections to fit properly is very slim,” says the man who offers 100-plus bridge fittings. “And yet this is a purchase that will literally be close to you, that will in part define you, for the next three or so years.”

Individuality is also a factor. Interest in bespoke frames has peaked in part because of such services’ uptake by celebrities – who have realised the personal branding potential of a distinctive pair of glasses, but who also want to “own” such branding. Davies, for example, has made glasses for the likes of Kevin Spacey, Angelina Jolie and chef Heston Blumenthal. When singer Ed Sheeran posted about his Tom Davies glasses, the London store took an extra £30,000 in orders the following week.

French eyewear company E.B. Meyrowitz runs a bespoke service, offering such unusual choices as frames made from mammoth ivory or coated with precious skins.