RVS by V Eyewear Blends Handmade Craftsmanship with Fab Retro Styling, Shapes and Colors.  Should We Carry RVS Eyewear at Urban Optiques?

At Urban Optiques, we’re always looking for the new and unusual to add to our eyewear collections.

We’re partial to small, exclusive independent boutique eyewear brands — especially those that show a high-level of commitment to producing not only exceptionally-designed eyeglasses and sunglasses, but also understand the value of quality over quantity.

So when we ran across RVS by V Eyewear, we were instantly enamored with not only the bold colors and distinctive retro-inspired shapes of the frames, but also the philosophy of RVS by V Eyewear and its owner Vidal Erkohen.

RVS Eyewear’s claim-to-fame is that they hand-make and assemble each frame from the ground up.  Based in Istanbul Turkey, Vidal Erkohen and RVS Eyewear produce their eyeglasses and sunglasses from the highest-quality Mazzuchelli acetate.  The acetate is left unpolished, producing a truly bold, unique matte finish that we simply haven’t seen on other frames of this quality in the marketplace.

When we contacted Vidal Erkohen to ask him about the possibility of stocking RVS Eyewear, he explained the company philosophy very succinctly:

“We believe it’s very important to produce eyewear for people who value quality over quantity. Each piece we manufacture is truly HANDMADE.  This does not mean they were “hand-placed in a case.”  Everything is truly made from hand:  From our hand painted-red screws, brand prints inside the temples made one-by-one, and hand-sewn satin cases;  all of our pieces are made with the goal to bring back the originality and quality that was put into eyewear of the past.”

RVS produces its eyewear like small batches of fine wine — their collection is relatively small compared to most eyewear lines, comprising 10 opthalmic frames and 11 sunglass models for a total of 21 frames.  Each model is typically available in five to six different colors.

Each RVS eyeglass and sunglass is limited to 1,500 pieces, making it extra-exclusive and ensuring that you’ll be only one of 1,000 people in the world to own any given RVS by V Eyewear piece.

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The Lafont Venise Eyeglass Frame is the Perfect Complement to this Spring’s Runway Looks

We’ve been watching the Spring couture collections like hawks around Urban Optiques and one thing is clear: Safari-inspired fashion and wild-at-heart eyewear to match is still hot, hot, hot.

We weren’t sure if the animal-kingdom inspired looks that we saw out of Donna Karan in this Fall would make it through into the Spring 2010 collections, but they did.

Everywhere we look, animal print and textures seem to be in.

And we’re none too glad for it, since we just received in a slew of new eyewear to complement the leopard prints, reptile textures and soft, muted browns, greens and khakis that appear to be winding their way into plenty of couture collections this Spring.

Which bring us to the Lafont Vanise, which is one of our favorite frames around Urban Optiques right now.

This isn’t one of Lafont’s latest releases, but it does signal their ability to spot trends long before they happen.

This frame is sophisticated and completely gorgeous, replicating an alligator-type texture on the temples with a wild but sophisticated acetate frame that is just screaming for someone to grab it and put it on their face.

The frame retails just north of $500 dollars, but we think it’s worth it.

Even better, the Lafont Venise comes in six different frame and temple colors, which got us thinking:

Could we match the Venise up with more than one look for Spring?

So we looked at four different Spring 2010 designer runway looks from Paris and New York (from Dior, Akris, Tory Burch and Chris Benz) and matched them to a coordinating Lafont Venise eyeglass frame.

We also picked some killer shoes to match the eyewear, grabbing selections from Manolo Blahnik, Sergio Rossi, Behnar Kanan and Tanja S. London.

Turns out that that the Venise worked with each one of them flawlessly — from retro-inspired fashions to “bad girl” couture.

It’s truly rare to find a piece of designer eyewear that meshes with so many different styles, but somehow the Venise from Lafont pulls it off.

Check out the looks we put together:

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Introducing Our ProDesign | Denmark Tints Collection Only Available at Urban Optiques

At Urban Optiques, we like to get creative with our eyewear.

It’s easy just to stock the same run-of-the-mill frames and brands that the chains carry, in the same predictable shapes, colors, materials and lenses.

If that’s what you truly want, you can always visit www.costco.com or www.pearlevision.com (yes, believe it or not, we’re comfortable enough that you’ll eventually choose us that we’ll actually send you to our competitors’ websites to compare.)

But we’ve quickly realized that our clients and patients expect something different.

They want the new, the stylish, the fashionable, the unusual — and sometimes — the cutting edge.

That’s why they’ll drive from as far away as Ohio (yes, they really do) or Grosse Pointe to find their perfect eyewear in downtown Northville.

Which brings me to our new ProDesign | Denmark Tints Collection.

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