Eyewear Maker Has New Vision

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RetroSpecs & Co. in Crenshaw specializes in historic eyewear. It restores and sells more than 30,000 frames a year, some dating from the 1870s.

But now the company is bringing a bit of modernity to its historical roots with the launch of its first collection of new frames, which debuted last week.

The line, Cuthbert & Chen, features hand-polished buffalo-horn frames and customizable titanium frames with blonde horn nose pads.

Jay Owens, founder and chief executive of RetroSpecs, said the collection is a reaction against what he sees as an industry overrun with cheap, mass-produced frames.

“Eyewear, in general, has become disposable,” he said. “It’s something you buy one year and throw it away and buy another. Our goal is to make one of our frames the thing you cherish in your life.”

The new collection includes 20 styles of frames made of buffalo horn – from Indian and African water buffalo, not American bison – and 14 styles of titanium frames. Parts for the frames are sourced from around the world and assembled at RetroSpecs’ headquarters, a 15,000-square-foot facility where the company’s 46 employees restore vintage frames.

Owens said the titanium collection is inspired by American midcentury frames, while the horn collection takes its cue from acetate frames made from 1910 through 1970.

“We’re starting to manufacture using contemporary materials of the same quality and standards as the historic frames,” said Owens, whose wife, Marya Francis, is the company’s creative director.

RetroSpecs sells to about 260 stores worldwide as well as its own boutiques in West Hollywood, Las Vegas and Seoul. Owens expects all of the stores to have the Cuthbert & Chen line by summer.

He declined to say how much RetroSpecs charges for the new frames, but said they’re comparable with other eyewear brands, such as West Hollywood’s Oliver Peoples, which retail from about $400 to $600.

– Subrina Hudson

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