There are fairly just a few islands within the Thames, when you get out past Hammersmith to the west. Most of them aren’t used for a lot aside from boat golf equipment, however Platt’s Eyott is a an exception.
There’s an industrial space with workshops and recording studios, boats moored across the perimeter. The infrastructure is there as a result of the island was used for making torpedo boats throughout each world wars, and it is now settled down into just a few concrete buildings and a few scrubland – excellent for mild business.
I have been to numerous these sorts of workshops over time, and I really like how different the places are. Even while you’re producing luxurious merchandise, price and area are paramount – the outside may be mud and cows in Amrtisar, blackened homes in Peebles, or shiny numbered heaps in Naples, nevertheless it’s not often glamorous.
EB Meyrowitz has been on Platt’s Eyott (the second phrase associated to ‘islet’, as in small island) for about 4 years. You attain it throughout an iron footbridge – solely accessible to pedestrians or a really slender van, one in every of which handed us as we crossed, a moist canine wanting by the window and lengthy rolls of fabric protruding the again.
Meyrowitz make their eyewear, largely in acetate and horn, on the primary ground of the central constructing.
After I first received to know EB Meyrowitz, round 13 years in the past, their glasses had been made by a collection of outworkers – in a lot the identical method as most bespoke footwear are made within the UK.
Over time the downsides of that system turned an excessive amount of – notably the dearth of management – and so they moved all the pieces in-house. The workshop was initially in north London and is now right here, within the south-west, with 4-5 employees on common together with one intern.
The best way Meyrowitz provides glasses to prospects has developed too. There has at all times been plenty of emphasis on customisation, however they don’t essentially do what readers would consider as ‘bespoke’ – and but don’t try this a lot ready-to-wear both.
Nearly all of what Meyrowitz does is customised variations of the ready-made frames you see within the retailer (Royal Arcade, Mayfair). I really suppose that with glasses this makes plenty of sense.
A gentleman got here in not too long ago, apparently, desirous to make bespoke glasses. He was relatively upset when he discovered that the frames wouldn’t be designed from scratch, and would subsequently not produce a body that might not be discovered anyplace else, on anybody else.
“The issue with doing that’s that prospects can’t think about what the ultimate product will seem like, and notably seem like on them,” says Sheel from Meyrowitz. “Usually they’ve an thought of their head – maybe some model of Aristotle Onassis – however they’re not going to seem like him, as a result of they simply have a special face. Individuals simply go well with various things.”
This has been my expertise too. I’ve had bespoke glasses made by a number of makers, and the hole between creativeness and realisation usually results in disappointment. I’d say it’s my expertise throughout plenty of bespoke, however notably with glasses, the place the margins for error are smaller and so are the variety of shapes that go well with you.
Readers typically remark that PS is helpful as a result of it saves them from making errors by making them first. Bespoke commissions like this are one space the place I believe that’s notably true. If I can save readers going by the identical expertise as me, it can save them plenty of time and cash.
More often than not Meyrowitz work with one of many frames within the retailer after which adapt it. These modifications will be fairly in depth, together with altering the form across the nostril to suit it extra snugly, for instance. It isn’t simply shaving away or bending an arm – it’s making one thing new.
Typically the modifications will be minor as nicely. Typically the one modifications I’ve wanted are a brand new arm on one aspect as one aspect of my head by no means matches the identical as the opposite.
Meyrowitz have emphasised this customisation extra because the years have gone on. They do promote RTW sun shades (the place the vary of appropriate designs is way bigger, and timing usually extra of a difficulty) however for opticals they attempt to at all times have this sort of prolonged customisation (if the parallel is tailoring, then that is one thing like made to measure).
They’re additionally fascinated about introducing an actual bespoke service in the way in which that the client needed – from scratch – however it might be extra concerned. Trial pairs, designs superimposed on images, a number of conferences and so forth. And clearly dearer.
Again on the island, I’m watching one of many craftspeople drip wax from a candle onto buffalo horn.
Horn is a beautiful materials, engaging as a result of it’s pure and warms to the pores and skin as solely a pure materials can, and we will’t actually get tortoiseshell any extra. However it’s a bugger to take care of – it have to be saved at a selected humidity, moisturised all through its life, and often introduced again to the maker each couple of years. In any other case it can finally dry out and twist out of practice.
It’s additionally not simple to provide the vary of colors that folks need. The mottled sample of tortoiseshell has grow to be so synonymous with glasses that most individuals don’t make the connection to precise tortoises anymore, however it’s one thing they like. So if they need it on horn, the fabric needs to be hand dyed with the sample, and wax is used to cease the dye from going onto sure areas.
Drip, drip, drip goes the candle. It makes the workshop scent fantastic, and it’s spectacular the craftsperson can create that regular-but-still-natural-looking sample as all of us stand and watch.
I believe glasses, notably sun shades, have gotten extra of a menswear accent. With the frequent absence of ties and handkerchieves lately, males that take into consideration these items are turning to different equipment like belts, baggage – and one thing else to stuff of their breast pocket.
A reader admitted to me not too long ago that he actually solely wanted his glasses for driving, however he carried them on a regular basis as a result of they helped fill that yawning void he felt in his outbreast pocket.
Maybe there can be a rise in glasses with attention-grabbing arms, so one will be displayed attractively when it hooks over that pocket. Not vibrant colors or animal faces, clearly, however maybe a barely wider, artfully minimize form, displaying a very busy space of mottling.
These had been my ideas as I noticed the handfuls of frames set out across the Meyrowitz workshop and regarded – as I believe all of us would – which I might get for myself. We by no means cease being prospects, even when we’re on a ramshackle island in the midst of the Thames.
Thanks to the entire Meyrowitz workforce for his or her hospitality. Keep in mind tright here is a PS class web page with all historic writing about eyewear.
