Eyewear collections that are frequently updated and considered avant-garde – while still selling through the practice – are like gold for independent optometry. Face à Face is a brand that exceeds these requirements, providing a differentiating factor for stockists.
Angelo Street Optical, a high street practice in suburban Perth, has a philosophy that patients leave “looking good and seeing well”. The consulting room is considered the backbone of the business with thorough 30-minute appointments. But it’s eyewear that mostly pays the bills – and the team take pride in finding the ideal frame for each patient.
“In fact, we get disappointed if somebody tries out the first pair of frames, and says ‘that’ll do’, because we always have so much more to show them,” says partner and optical dispenser Mr Barry Telfer.
“We pride ourselves on having a genuine interest in our clients and avoid where possible the heavily corporatised brands, preferring to lean towards brands from independent suppliers.”
It’s fair to say Angelo Street Optical has the hallmarks of a fiercely independent practice. As such, for the almost 20 years it has been in business, Eyes Right Optical has been the practice’s mainstay frames supplier. The family-owned eyewear wholesaler is one of the leading suppliers to the independent optical market in Australia and New Zealand, importing brands from Europe aimed at the mid- to- high end.
Face à Face is one of the key brands – and is a label Angelo Street Optical has stocked since 2010. It fits nicely with the suburban practice’s clientele who have an appreciation for high fashion and beautiful, quality product.
“With Face à Face, we continue to see fresh designs and combinations and we’ve got a number of existing clients with deep trust in the brand. It does tend to attract the mature age wearer who is comfortable not wearing an instantly recognisable brand, but still want to look modern and vibrant,” Telfer says.
“We also love that Face à Face has consistently stuck with a marvellous variety of exquisite Mazzucchelli acetates that are incredibly well cut and finished, with good joint structures. They’re not cookie cutter shapes and there’s always new models and colour varieties being introduced. I recently went to SILMO and what I saw in Paris was almost immediately available here in Australia – we’re right up there accessing the latest stock and trends.”
Mr Mark Wymond, CEO and managing director of Eyes Right Optical, says Face à Face frames are handmade, with a production and finishing centre in the French Jura region – one of its unique selling points.
“Handmade speaks to the precision hand finishing and polishing at the end of the production, which is evident in the final product. There’s no sharp corners or edges because it’s been meticulously cared for,” he says.
First created in 1995, the Face à Face brand grew out of a passion for architecture shared by a small group of eyewear enthusiasts. Among them were Mr Pascal Jaulent and his partner Ms Nadine Roth, who sold the business to Danish eyewear designer and manufacturer Design Eyewear Group, which now counts Face à Face among nine brands in its portfolio.
Wymond says Jaulent and Roth had a close relationship with DEG over the years, and the latter has respected the essence of the brand.
“Face à Face and Eyes Right Optical also have a long history, which started around 1996, and it was one of the brands that put us on the map in Australia,” he says.
“Later, Face à Face became a part of Design Eyewear Group, which really helped professionalise the brand, adding to an already incredibly reliable brand in terms of consistently beautiful releases, with avant-garde style while also paying attention to saleability. It also allowed access to more marketing, video and imagery, availability of stock and creative design.
“For a creative brand, that’s sometimes very hard achieve, but Design Eyewear Group have done this while sticking to the DNA of Face à Face. The strong sales and brand heritage are evident. We’ve never sold more Face à Face than last year.”
Wymond says Face à Face is famous for beautiful colorways and adventurous styles. It’s avant-garde while remaining saleable for largely style-driven and boutique independents.
“The typical wearer is fashion-orientated. They have their own sense of personal style, while always giving equal appreciation to quality and comfort,” he says, noting the collections mostly comprise acetate frames, but there are some metal pieces.
“Anything that comes out with a black front with a safari print temple is always a hot seller. The bright pinks and bright blues are popular too, but we find new releases always end up as our bestsellers. It’s very quick moving collection; when the new release drops, there’s always increased interest.”
Wymond adds that Face à Face usually introduces four new collections per year – with the two main releases coinciding with SILMO Paris and MIDO.
A symbiotic relationship
When Angelo Street Optical first spoke to Eyes Right Optical sales agent Ms Maureen Bradley about stocking Face à Face in 2010, there were some nerves. The practice hadn’t introduced a collection at this price point previously,
“We worked with Maureen to get the right product mix for our practice and from there Face à Face just took off, it was amazing and we have never looked back,” Telfer recalls.
“We have what I’d describe as a symbiotic relationship with Eyes Right Optical. They are a delight to deal with. It doesn’t matter who you’re speaking with, they all have our best interests at heart and that shows. David and Gaye Wymond set the tone when we first opened an account with them, and the next generation, Mark and Lisa Wymond, have certainly continued that ethos. Natalie Alcock, the current WA rep for Face à Face, has also been exceptional helping us maintain our range for the past 10 years.”
Today, Telfer continues to be impressed with Face à Face’s artistic flair, consistency, style and materials. It stands out, so the practice has it on display in a prominent area of the store.
While Face à Face has allowed the practice to elevate its eyewear offering, from a business perspective, it’s also allowed Telfer to focus on high quality dispensing.
“We ensure our price-pointing compared to other stockists with the same product is very competitive. It’s helped define us, and allowed us to work smarter, not harder,” he explains. “As opposed to being known as ‘grumpy, old Barry’ performing 30 buy one, get one free dispenses a day, I’d rather do 10 good dispenses and come out at a similar place financially.”
Inside the creative process
While DEG is based in Denmark, Face à Face’s design team remains in the heart of Paris, with the frames hand crafted in France, Italy or Japan, depending on the manufacturing expertise required.
As the design creative manager at DEG, Ms Marianne Desez is one of the key figures bringing Face à Face eyewear to life in the company’s Paris studio. Working alongside fellow designer Ms Claire Ferreira and new junior designer Ms Diane Bliek, she says they act like “colour paparazzis – always catching colour moments in our daily life, morning coffee, art exhibitions or shopping sessions”.
“We are colour hunters mixed with sculptor searchers. Actually, we could say that one of our main activities is ‘sculpturing colour’,” Desez says.
“We like crushy-tasty-intense sensations and our passion is to make it wearable, not caricatural. We also have Arnaud Pommier, our modelmaker, creating models by hand in our workshop in the centre of Paris, it is so important for us to work with the true acetate colours and plays of light.”
At Face à Face’s birth in the mid-1990s, Desez says optical frames were mostly considered a medical device. But Ms Alyson Magee’s first Face à Face designs were considered an artistic statement for wearers.
Built on the founding principle to empower individuals with the confidence and conviction that comes from eyewear truly reflecting their essence, Desez says from the outset Face à Face challenged the conventional, bringing to life eyewear that combines avant-garde design, vibrant colours, and surprising shapes. Each collection is described as an invitation to explore new possibilities, to break free from the mundane, and embrace styles wearers dream of.
“With every curve, colour, and line, we strive to embody the spirit of Parisian artistry. Our eyewear is designed for those who see the world differently and who wish to reveal their unique perspective through what they wear. That’s why we say: Wear your vision,” she says.
“In 2014, Face à Face needed more power inside the international landscape and joined Design Eyewear Group. The unique association between French flair and Danish commercial genius gave Face à Face a second birth. Today our brand is distributed in more than 80 countries around the world and benefits from the latest logistical methods to ensure some of the best reliability in the createur eyewear industry. The possibility of combining high creativity and a strong sense of service is something rare and unique.”
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