A Different Vision @ Warby Parker

A yellow school bus retrofitted as optical showroom/library/lounge, road tripping cross country.  An annual report with stats on bagel consumption in the home office.  A Canine Collection of specs.  Buy a pair, give a pair donation program.  Retro-modern frames sold online with free 5-pair-at-a-time at-home try-on, free shipping and single vision anti-scratch anti-glare lenses for $95. 

One of the above sentences is not true.  If you've shopped for eyeglasses lately and, like my husband, received a quote of $450 to replace just the lenses on a pair of prescription glasses you'd believe $95, not Canine Collection, is the joke. Yet it's no joke at Warby Parker.

 

Warby Parker has a different vision for selling eyewear and running a company.  It's one that combines an approach humorous enough to create the "Warby Barker" mirror site as an adorable April Fools lark, serious enough to make a charitable cause an integral part of their business model, and smart enough to make sure at the core of all this is a covetable product that melds classic craftsmanship with bold style and striking colorations (icy woodgrain, violet-tinged tortoise, glowing cherry).  Warby Parker even does product launches differently.  In this case, to introduce their new limited edition Hayworth capsule collection, they invited a handful of bloggers to post today, encouraging each of us to write about it in our own way as we give readers a first glimpse at the new line. 

Coincidentally I'd been planning to check out the brand since just when my husband and I needed new specs Warby Parker popped up in a magazine article, at a fashion conference and on a blogging friend's job profile.  So I headed to one of WP's 12 showrooms, nestled inside Art In The Age boutique.  Walked in. Glanced at display. Pulled a pair. Tried on. Perfect. Done.  Though I only need RX glasses for driving and the movies, the sexy secretary look I found was so striking and flattering I won't whisk this pair off the second the lights come up or the car door closes.  And now, given the Hayworth Collection's inspiration from film noir ... femme fatales ... 40s and 50s Hollywood glam with a modern twist ... I'll have to go back, or go online, and find myself some chic sunglasses.


Einstein appears courtesy Warby Barker. Neville frame in Blue Marblewood from the limited edition Warby Parker Hayworth Collection.