The vibrant hues in the Prue Collection are creating a buzz in practices around Australia, drawing people in off the street in regional Victoria, and winning over practice staff in Greater Newcastle.
The Prue Collection, designed in collaboration with celebrity chef, author and television personality Dame Prue Leith, has landed in Australian eyecare practices with immediate attention from both staff and patients, according to early adopters.
At Eyecare Plus Toronto in New South Wales, practice manager Sarah Gormley says the range arrived in February 2026 following a visit from an Eyes Right Optical representative and quickly became a focal point in the practice.
“It was pretty fresh into the country when our rep brought it into the store,” she says. “I would have to say it’s probably created the biggest buzz amongst the staff of any brand that we’ve seen new.”
It’s the same story at Portland and Warrnambool Eyecare in Victoria, where practice manager Pete Lock initially selected a dozen models.
“But we’ll probably expand that very soon, just because it is proving popular,” he says.
Created by British media personality Dame Prue Leith, best-known as a judge on The Great British Bake Off, and a self-confessed ‘colour obsessive’, Eyes Right Optical is distributing the Prue collection exclusively in Australia, bringing in the full suite of approximately 20 models across about 100 SKUs, all crafted in acetate.
Gormley, who has managed the practice for three and a half years and selects optical stock, says the reaction from staff was immediate, particularly around colour combinations within the range.
“It was more about just the surprise of how well the colours work together,” she says. “You would pick them up and think that just shouldn’t work on somebody’s face, but it does work so successfully.”
Gormley says the practice team responded so strongly that several staff members selected frames for themselves during the initial introduction. Staff favourites aside, she says the range required careful curation before being placed on display.
“It was pretty hard to narrow down what we would have on the shelf,” she says. “We had to restrain ourselves a bit and not select every single model in every single colour.”
To get the balance right, Gormley trialled different combinations on display before finalising her selection. They were keen to curate a range that was going to “jump out when people looked at them”.
She needn’t have worried. Once on display, Gormley says the range immediately became one of the most tried-on collections in the practice.
“They certainly draw a lot of attention,” she says, adding their placement at the front of the store has been deliberate to maximise visibility.
With more than 25 years’ industry experience, Gormley knows patients are often drawn to multiple options within the same range once they begin trying them on, and the Prue Collection is a prime example of this.
“If that range suits people, it tends to be one, two, three or four frames that they can select from that range,” she says. “The Prue Collection is such a clever design and clever combination of colours.”
Plans to expand selection
At Portland and Warrnambool Eyecare in Victoria, Lock, who is the practice manager, oversees both practices (one in each town) and introduced the range in late March 2026.
“We’ve had it now for just over a month,” he says at the time of writing. “We put in 12 pieces in each practice to see how it went.”
Lock says the decision to start with a smaller selection was deliberate, allowing the team to assess patient response before expanding.
He says the first impression of the collection was driven strongly by colour. They standout on the shelf, and are complemented by “very sellable” shapes as well.
Lock says patient engagement typically begins with colour before moving to frame fit and shape. He says a window display of the range has also contributed to increased visibility of the practice itself.
“It’s stopping people on the street – the colour draws them in,” he says.
Early results have been consistent across both seaside locations, with a mix of models purchased rather than any single best-selling model, prompting the practice to consider expanding the range.
“Even the frame cases, the colours all the way through, are spectacular,” he says. “We’ll restock and probably expand what we’ve stocked,” he says.
Gormley and Lock both note that the collection aligns with growing interest in colour and expressive eyewear choices in practice.
“People are more willing to wear interesting colours and shapes than they were a few years ago,” Lock says.
Eyes Right Optical managing director Mark Wymond says the collection’s successful introduction at practices like Eyecare Plus Toronto and Portland and Warrnambool Eyecare reflect a wider colour-led movement in eyewear.
This was highlighted in its UK launch at 100% Optical in London earlier in 2026, where distributor Modstyle Eyewear UK reported strong engagement and high in-person demand around the stand.
Wymond described the reaction at the event as something he’d never witnessed, with queues forming both for product viewing and for interaction with Prue Leith herself during the launch appearance.
He said the combination of wearable shapes and bold colour palettes was central to the collection’s appeal, a truth borne out at Eyecare Plus Toronto and Portland and Warrnambool Eyecare.
“It suits that demographic with a sense of style and colour,” Lock says.
