The rise of the high-end, high-street optician

In north London, where Cross Street meets the leafy meander of Upper Street, there is a grand total of three trendy opticians, and all within eyeshot, depending on your prescription that is. Ace & Tate, Jimmy Fairly and Cubitts are perhaps the foremost trio of a spectacle boom that has steadily spread across the capital and beyond over the past few years, but they are not alone. There is also Finlay with stores in Soho and Notting Hill and Bloobloom, a French brand that launched in 2019, which already has six locations in London.

Traditionally, buying prescription glasses was a somewhat uninspiring affair. You'd head to an ersatz optician on the high street for an eye test, and peruse the branded frames that lined the stark, municipal shelves, wondering whether to opt for something cheap but dreary, or branded and expensive. But in the 201os, as e-commerce platforms became more sophisticated, more and more direct-to-consumer (DTC) spectacle brands started popping up and, because they circumvented the long-established wholesale model, they were able to offer high-quality, considerately designed frames at lower-than-average prices.

'The internet cut out the wholesalers,' affirms Tom Broughton, founder of Cubitts, which now has 18 stores in the UK, and two in New York. The second big thing was CNC manufacturing, he adds, referring to the machinery that creates the frames. 'Only in the last 10 to 15 years has it become economical for CNC factories to make small runs, in the region of 500 to 800 pieces,' which are more economical to sell directly to the end user.

For most of the past couple of centuries, eyewear in its various forms was broadly bespoke-made, from fine horns and precious metals, and therefore luxurious. But throughout 'People are looking for specialism as opposed to mass-market luxury' the 20th century, via free NHS optometry, its appeal dulled to the point of stigma, and most people considered wearing glasses something of a necessary evil. But in just a decade or so, these DTC brands have been able to reframe spectacles and imbue them with cool and social currency, like a luxury watch or brand of beer.

'People are looking for specialism,' says Broughton, 'as opposed to mass-market luxury.' Broughton notes the emergence of a hyper-expensive corner of the market, too, where brands such as Jacques Marie Mage offer thrillingly cool specs for hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds. 'Mid- and true-luxury eyewear brands were among the best-performing product categories of 2024,' says Mario Ortelli, managing partner of luxury M&A firm Ortelli&Co., who notes that the entry-level price points Bloobloom frames start at £99; Ace & Tate from £125 - were especially appealing to aspirational consumers that have been 'alienated' by recent accessory price hikes from luxury brands.

The ever-expanding array of stores offers insight into how the industry is shifting, too. The triumvirate of Boots, Specsavers and Vision Express still represents the lion's share of the market, but they are all still recognisably opticians, whereas many of these DTC brands feel like they might be better suited to the fashion industry.

Recently refurbished, the interior of Cubitts' Islington store, for example, was overseen by hip Milanese design studio Tutto Bene, and inspired by the work of American surrealist painter and poet Kay Sage. The curious, curvilinear sofa at its centre is an homage to her 1939 work, No One Heard Thunder.

'We design the stores to be beautiful, to reflect the area, and create an environment where people just want to be,' says Broughton, who notes that Cubitts' 'archetypal customer is a 38-year-old guy who lives in Hackney and works at a creative agency - although the customer base is broad. But Broughton also suggests it might not be long until technology allows us to conduct eye tests from the comfort of our homes, so the role of the store will have to change once again. More bad news for the high-street optician, it seems.