Saturday 12 December 2009

Toll the bell, dig the hole, tend the pyre, but leave the spectacles for me

Toll the bell, dig the hole, tend the pyre, but leave the spectacles for me -
with appologies to Thomas Lynch "Local Heroes" www.thomaslynch.com

I’ve lost count how many times I’ve been asked “why Dead Men’s Spex?”

I usually give the standard response about being in partnership with the local undertakers and the bit about coffin robbing! This usually amuses and deflects from the real question “why Dead Men’s Spex?”

Truth be known, what initially started as a name to make people look twice has become a philosophy of business.

It stands for the uncomplicated nature of the business, in that; it is honestly where many of our frames come from.

This then hopefully reflects the nature of the path many of us have taken, looking back at the fashions and skills of our forbearers and literally taking on their mantle. We recognise the quality of vintage wares, much of them handmade and tailored in a time when we were the workshop of the World (at this point I’m going to stop as this is when I start to sound like my father ! :oD )

These skills and qualities are amply reflected in the frames made by Algha http://www.algha.com/ . A longstanding London based producer of fine rolled gold frames. They are still in production with their Saville Row Collection but it is their early pre-war and wartime frames that are most sought after by many connoisseurs of immaculately engineered fashion. I use the word engineered on purpose as if you take a look at one of their frame illustrations of the 1920’s you could imagine that you were looking at a schematic plan for a bridge or building.





So here we are posting 3 on the blog and already talking philosophy and the nature of life the universe and all the little bits in between. I’m off to do a little grave-digging now, well, a guy’s got to make a living some how ..............


D.Man

Wednesday 2 December 2009

Looking forward, looking back. The delights of vintage spectacles.

Thank you for looking in on what I hope will be a weekly look at the world of vintage spectacles from the home of vintage eyewear www.deadmensspex.com

There are many of you out there who are dressing in the most wonderful period outfits, but, how many of you think about the first thing people see when they look in your face? No I don't mean fear, loathing or the remains of a surreptitiously eaten biscuit around you mouth, I mean your spectacles!

Nothing is going to ruin the illusion of you being the most delicious, lost 1940's model than a modern pair of spex. How many WWII soldiers marched into war wearing Timmy Mallets' cast offs, and would Buddy Holly have been seen dead in a pair of 1980's aviators?

Here we have our friend Miss Fleur de Guerre, part-time pinup girl and full-time Forties enthusiast www.diaryofavintagegirl.com showing what a difference the correct period eyewear can make.




TTFN

D. Man