People Magazine’s 2009/2010 “Sexiest Man Alive” Isn’t Afraid of Bold Eyeglasses. We Track Down The Designer of Depp’s Retro Specs.

When you’re in the optometry and optical business, there are two things that you just develop an innate awareness for: People’s eyes and the eyeglasses and sunglasses they put over them.

It becomes almost like a second sense, and after a while you begin to take note of cool eyewear on other people in the same way that Carrie Bradshaw would notice a great pair of Manolos.

Johnny Depp in his Moscot Eyeglasses

While celebrities practically live in their sunglasses, it’s rarer to see them sporting eyeglasses. Jennifer Garner has been known to wear eyeglasses (specifically a pair of Chrome Hearts), but we tend to see fewer eyeglasses on celebrities than we see sunglasses.

But we can now add Johnny Depp to the list of actors embracing great eyewear and doing it in public. A spat of photo ops, magazine spreads and tabloid covers over the past few months have captured People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” in a pair of roundish, tortoise-shell specs.

At first, I thought they may have been Tom Ford frames, since Depp is known to own a few pairs of Tom Ford sunglasses. TF has a line of bold acetate frames with a similar shape to the eyeglass frames Depp has been seen in.  But the shape, etching and details were different from the Tom Ford’s we stock in the store.

So this weekend we set out to identify the mysterious Johnny Depp eyeglass frames and with the help of Google and a high-resolution photo of Depp in his eyeglasses, we think we have a positive identification.

We believe Depp is wearing Moscot Lemtosh frames.

Johnny Depp

The only thing throwing us off is that in several pictures, Depp’s eyeglasses appear to have an oval insignia on the temple, not the Moscot diamond.  But this could be an issue of the angle of the photos.  A visit to Moscot’s website confirms that Depp is counted among their fans.

For those of you not familiar with Mascot, it’s one of New York City’s oldest eyewear and optical shops (it was founded in 1915) and their frames have worked their way into popular culture, showing up on everyone from Truman Capote to Buddy Holly and now … Johnny Depp. 

Moscot’s designs have a definite retro feel to them — some of their bread-and-butter classic frames haven’t changed much since Buddy Holly wore them. On the other hand, Moscot hasn’t been afraid to expand beyond acetates and apply their retro looks to new materials like titanium and mixed metals. Moscot eyewear is the type of frame that appeals to hipsters, artists, free-spirits and people who just dig funky, fun, retro-style looks on their face.

Moscot Lemtosh Tortoise 3173 Eyeglasses

Moscot eyewear is available only through their retail stores and a select number of eyewear boutiques. Moscot is one of several brands we’re considering adding to the Urban Optiques eyewear collection. But we are interested in what you think? Should we add it? Leave your comments below. We want to hear from you.