In a country where every high street looks drably identical and every optician either carries the same 'designer' labels or competes at the lower end of the market - offering low prices as their raison d'etre - it is Adam's goal to offer quality and service above other factors.
To this end, he encourages and promotes smaller, individual frame designers who generally produce better quality and more interesting eyewear.
Best quality ophthalmic lenses by Zeiss, Essilor and Seiko are fitted as standard.
He has an unhealthy dislike for the so-called designer eyewear brands, such as Dior, Chanel, Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana.
These labels are bought under licence by spectacle companies who parade their vile logos on the outside of their spectacles and have nothing whatsoever to do with the fashion houses who sell them their names.
as opposed to?
They aren't desperately well made (come on, sue me) and the lenses in their sunglasses aren't made to the highest of standards.
All the best frame ranges are designed by opticians, such as Oliver Peoples, Blinde, LA Eyeworks and Theo.
Adam is a passionate believer in good quality eyewear and eyecare. To this end, the practice is geared towards providing the best quality products - eye examination, frames and lenses.
Stock is sourced unconventionally. We travel all around the world to find appropriate ranges of glasses and have a number of exclusive lines.
I recently read a wonderful book called The Paradox of Choice, by Barry Schwartz, whose basic premise is that too much choice, as evidenced by today's hyper-consumer driven society, can be both debilitating and paralysing. On the other hand, too little choice leads to lack of freedom, which is also undesirable.
Relating this philosophy to my practice, I wanted to go the opposite direction of the optical superstores who have all apparently got the largest choice of frames in the country.
My initial design brief was to display only a small number of frames at any one time and yet have many more at our disposal should they be needed. That way, when helping people with frame selection, they won't be overwhelmed with many hundreds of inappropriate frames confusing the issue.
