Cutler and Gross and the art of statement eyewear

Despite its ever-evolving nature, there are still plenty of places in London that allow you to temporarily step back in time. Spectacle maker Cutler and Gross opened its first store on Knightsbridge Green, a narrow cut-through between two of west London’s busiest streets, in 1971, and if you peer into the window today, you’ll see a scene largely unchanged in over half a century. Neat rows of elegant frames, stylish staff and customers that look like they lead supremely interesting lives.

Graham Cutler and Tony Gross met at optometry college in the early 1960s, and soon came together to form a kind of yin and yang of eyewear. Cutler was fastidious, concerned with function and utility, whereas Gross favoured flamboyance. ‘People who need glasses don’t have to feel separated from glamour,’ he once said.

That balance between craftsmanship and flair garnered immediate attention from the art set – the likes of David Hockney, Grace Jones and David Bowie. They were drawn in by the melodramatic shapes, the richly coloured acetates, the handmade quality and the capacity for self-expression. Spectacles were once items of pure function – Cutler and Gross made them objects of desire.

Inspiration for new styles could come from anywhere: a film, an exhibition, a moment on the street, and when an idea struck, Cutler and/or Gross would scurry up to the studio and put George Smith, the original frame-maker, to work. Fittingly, the room above the Knightsbridge store is today the place where customers explore the brand’s bespoke service.

The Cutler and Gross collection is broad, ranging from chunky acetate statement-makers, to ascetic metal specs that you’ll barely feel on your nose. There are zeitgeisty collaborations, too, most notably with Palace, for whom Cutler and Gross recently made three pairs of sunglasses, the skatewear brand’s first foray into eyewear.

But the bespoke service, which starts at £895, offers the most authentic C&G experience. The Blend met with Marie Wilkinson, the brand’s style director (and design maven since 1983) at the Knightsbridge store to understand what might be possible.

Bespoke clients start by choosing a frame, she explained, noting how ‘modern workers’ (business types) tend to lean towards Cutler’s more restrained designs, while those in the art crowd – Peter Saville, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Bella Freud among others – still go for Gross’ ‘maximalist’ aesthetic.

They then choose the material, either the finest Italian acetate – polished at the factory near Como for 96 hours, part of a more than 200-hour process for each pair of frames – or buffalo horn, and then the design details. Perhaps your initials engraved at the temple, a parallel etching of New York’s Chrysler Building on the barrel in the arm, or star-shaped pins to hold everything together.

Then it’s the lenses. Cutler and Gross thin its lenses down, so the wearer’s eyes aren’t magnified from within. And unlike most specs, Wilkinson says, ‘they’re built without an ‘optical centre’, so you have the same clarity wherever you look.

Delightfully, the frames you eventually receive will be identified by a code, rather than a name. This is the same for all Cutler and Gross frames, bespoke or otherwise, to avoid the feeling of wearing someone else’s specs.

‘They’re not Elton’s glasses’, explains Wilkinson, highlighting the Rocket Man’s appreciation for the brand, ‘they’re yours.’

Choose your own details – perhaps your initials engraved at the temple or a parallel etching of New York’s Chrysler Building on the barrel in the arm

Cutler & Gross , 16 Knightsbridge Green, London, SW1X 7QL