From Dispenser to Designer

How successful eyewear designers have made the leap from the dispensing table to the drawing board

By Erinn Morgan

The eyewear industry is home to a number of well-known designers who got their start either in the exam room or behind the dispensing table. Does this experience help them to better create fashion-focused spectacles with real-world appeal?

Here, we check in with a number of designers who have successfully transitioned from optometry and opticianry to eyewear design. They divulge their backgrounds, their inspirations, and how they made the jump to the design realm.

Selima SALAUN

This trend-setting eyewear designer is also the founder and proprietress of the high-end (and high-profile) Selima Optique, which has eight locations in New York, Los Angeles, and Paris.

DISPENSER: Born in Tunisia and raised in Algeria, Salaun found her way to Paris to pursue a career as an optician—and go to school for optometry. “I started at an extremely high-end optical shop selling glasses for $15,000 with gold and shell,” says Salaun, “I was doing everything in the shop from cutting lenses to giving eye exams.” Designer Alain Mikli hired her to help open his stores in Paris and New York. She fell “madly in love” with Manhattan and moved there in 1990. “I stopped doing eye exams when I moved to America because the license is not the same, but I really loved the optometry part because you get an amazing relationship with the client,” she says.

DESIGNER: Salaun opened her optical boutique in SoHo in 1993, carrying just a few brands, including Alain Mikli. “A client came in one day and said, ‘I really would like to find a pair of glasses inspired by Le Corbusier [the architect] in a fun color,'” says Salaun. “I couldn't find anything like this so I said, ‘I'll make it for you.'” She made this customer, traveler/blogger Hubert Kriegel (thetimelessride.com), a pair of bright red reading glasses that have become his trademark. This experience inspired Salaun to design more frames, which she began selling in her store. “Then one day in 1996 the president of Barneys New York came in and bought a pair of glasses. They called and said, ‘We want the collection for the store,'” she recalls. “I said, ‘Great, but I have no clue how to do this and no production.' They said they would help me, so this is how it began.” Today, her frames are sold worldwide and she collaborates with J.Crew designing children's glasses.

Gai Gherardi

Wildly creative designers Gai Gherardi and Barabara McReynolds opened the doors to l.a.Eyeworks over 30 years ago.

DISPENSER: After high school, both McReynolds and Gherardi started working as opticians in Southern California. “We were mentored by some extraordinary businesspeople and practitioners,” says Gherardi. The duo launched l.a.Eyeworks in 1979 and now has two stores in Los Angeles. “Our training as opticians—especially our experiences at the workbench—coupled with our own curiosity, made many things possible,” says Gherardi. “We were fascinated by the way people came to eyeglasses through their personalities—the ‘psychology' of vision, if you will.”

DESIGNER: In 1980, Gherardi and McReynolds made their first frame called The Beat. “The response was overwhelming and it inspired us to create more designs,” says Gherardi. “This was not a jump for us, per se, but rather part of the total equation that drove us to bring l.a.Eyeworks into being. We were dissatisfied with the prevailing notions of eyeglasses in the late '70s/early '80s, not only the look of things, but also the defined gender expectations for eyeglasses. We had a hunch those paradigms were ready to be overturned. “We treasure the experience of working with people on a deep, sincere level to enhance their look and vision,” says Gherardi. “When a new frame energizes someone's personality, or beautifully made lenses bring their vision into focus—those moments are everything Barbara and I believe in.”

Gherardi says they are inspired by many things: “a Leonard Cohen song, a hummingbird nest, artist Yayoi Kusama, surf culture, the way someone customizes their tennis shoes—we tune in with delight to many things. But the face, in all its magnificent diversity, is always our inspiration.”

Robert Marc

This lively and urbane eyewear designer, who has nine namesake eyewear boutiques in New York and Boston, has an A-List celebrity following.

DISPENSER: While taking an opticianry course in New York City, Marc worked at two optical stores in Manhattan to learn all the different aspects of managing an eyewear business. “During this time, I developed a clear vision of the direction that I wanted to take in the industry. In 1981, I opened my first boutique on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the new, trendy area at that time.” Marc opened what was the first “eyewear boutique in New York, when everything else was your old-fashioned eyeglass store,” he says. “It was a time when there was so little else, I had to create! I added unique frames to my merchandise by reconditioning antique frames, dying and sandblasting frames in my home, and adding custom-tinted fashion lenses to classic styles.”

DESIGNER: “My experience as an optician has taught me about the needs of my customers and I always keep them top of mind when I design a collection,” he says. “Function and fit cannot be sacrificed.” Through his retail stores, Marc became friends with some very well-known designers who were customers. “They were coming to me for the unique looks that I was creating. I was asked to help them create an eyewear line and hence my official beginning as an ‘eyewear designer,'” he says. “I launched my eponymous collection in 1999 using my signature, trademarked hinge and exclusive, custom materials.” His sophisticated designs have earned him one of fashion's highest design credentials—Marc was inducted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) in 2001. Today, Marc says he loves the sculptural, three-dimensional process of designing eyewear. “As an eyewear designer, I like to support the tradition of artisanal, handcrafted eyewear because, for me, quality and craftsmanship are paramount to design,” he says.

Todd Rogers

The founder of Andover Eye Care in Andover, Mass., Todd Rogers took a creative leap and launched Todd Rogers Eyewear in 2010.

DISPENSER: Rogers got his start in the eyewear market while apprenticing to become a licensed optician at a practice near Boston. “I focused on bringing in designer lines and I used to spend time in the basement creating my own lens shapes in glass.” Once licensed, he set up shop with Andover Eye Care. “I saw the industry changing so rapidly and I knew I needed to move to be the optician I wanted to be,” he says. “Plus, I love being in the thick of things—sitting there and fitting people with great eyewear.”

DESIGNER: Rogers' design inclinations began when he started doing a lot of custom work. “I had a friend who had done some frame design work and I helped him out and went to a manufacturing meeting where they said, ‘See this frame? What do you think about it? What's wrong with it?' I made some suggestions and then four months later I am selling the frame.” For his own collection, “I design from the heart, but because I am an optician I design with practicality in mind.”

Rick Nelson

A former optician who started doing lab work for his father, a Guild Optician, Nelson uses his technical knowledge to help design the sophisticated looks in Bevel's Rx and sunglass collections.

DISPENSER: Nelson's father was a Guild Optician with his own small dispensary where his son got his feet wet in optical. “I started doing lab work for him when I was around 13 and was dispensing alongside of him at 16,” he says. “I bought the practice from him when I was 21.” One of the best parts of being an optician? “Being able to school people on eyewear fashion—a lady might have 50 handbags and over 100 pairs of shoes but would expect one pair of glasses to go with every outfit,” says Nelson. “It's amazing, if you do your job properly, the customer will end up with a fetish for eyewear.”

DESIGNER: Nelson went from optician to sales rep for Matsuda, where he met Richard Mewha. The two would move on to open Bevel. “Richard and I both were reps for Matsuda and just wanted to be more in control with the way the high-end industry was servicing the customer,” he says. While Mewha focuses on designing, Nelson puts the onus on technical and fitting issues. “Being an optician probably has made my job a little harder as I take Richard's creative designs and make sure they can fit someone's face. I enjoy using technology and materials that prohibit the wannabes from copying.”

Blake Kuwahara

This gracious, visionary eyewear designer got his start as an optometrist and has gone on to create his own eyewear line, design for other companies, and, most recently, launch his own design consulting firm, Focus Group West.

DISPENSER: In private practice for several years, Kuwahara found optometry was not for him. “It's a great profession—I loved the practice I was in, my patients, and my staff,” he says. “But, I soon found that being an OD was too static for me. That, and being in a dark exam room for the majority of my day was not something that I wanted long term. Eyewear design still kept me connected to my professional roots but allowed me to fulfill my creative side.”

DESIGNER: Kuwahara met Wilshire Designs/Liz Claiborne Optics owner Dick Haft, who was looking for a “fashion forecaster”—someone with an optical background and an interest in fashion. “I thought, ‘That's the perfect job for me!'” says Kuwahara. “Naturally, they weren't looking for an OD and only after being really persistent did they give me an interview.” After a few meetings, he was offered the newly created position of design director. “I was floored…I had no practical product development experience, but he took a chance on me and gave me my start in the design side of the business,” Kuwahara says. After a year or so designing under license for seven brands, including Liz Claiborne, Kuwahara had an idea for his own collection. “I wanted to design something that matched my own sensibilities—something that was artful but also wearable,” he says. “Dick gave me carte blanche and from that came KATA Eyewear.” Kuwahara has also worked as a design director for REM Eyewear and has recently launched his own design consulting company, Focus Group West, which offers product development, graphic design, interior design, architectural, and public relations services.