We get our frames from suppliers who we trust and like - many of our suppliers are family businesses and we have met them all in real life - usually on our annual trip to Paris for the global trade fair called Silmo.

Everything we stock has been hand picked by us, whether it’s our lowest or highest cost frame - we don’t sell any that are not well made or any with silly designer labels on the side.

Soon we are getting some from Spain - a company called Folc, with designer Marta and husband Paul running things. We have a long standing relationship with Dutch couple Hans and Nicole in the Netherlands, who run Heyelander and Franck in The Jura, France who runs the company his father started. it’s great having relationships with people all over Europe, even though the paperwork and costs of dealing with them is annoying since Brexit.

Can you test your own eyes if you are an optometrist? Well, you can do elements, but perhaps not the most important bits, like check the health of the eye. In fact checking the health of the eye and determining the correct spectacle prescriptions are the absolute minimum requirements of an eye test.

We are currently in the process of recruiting another optometrist to work with Sharonjit and Karl (owner of Eyeye - and blog writer, social media person) and it’s a real (ahem) eye opener hearing what conditions optoms work in elsewhere. Opticians are put under both enormous time and KPI delivery pressure. The KPIs that they get hammered on are: 1) Conversion - how many people who are tested buy specs; 2) AOV - average order value of the those converted; 3) Number of tests done. For many places a good optom is one who tests fast and flogs specs and doesn’t make a fuss. It’s an awful job and let’s not pretend there are not issues with the eyecare offered in theses environments.

It’s a pity that optoms spend 4+ yrs getting qualified and when they do qualify the main message they get is they need to strip their eye test down and get faster. It’s so much better for patient and practitioner if time is taken to listen, understand and explain … answer questions etc. It’s more enjoyable for everyone!

Every September we set off to a huge trade show called Silmo - it’s in Paris. We don’t go just because an event in Paris is inherently more exciting than one at the NEC in Birmingham … but, because we get to meet frame designers and makers from around the world and find what we want to stock for the coming year.

One of the best things about being a truly indepedent store (note lots of indies in our sector have now sold out to a group) only we decide what we want to sell. No head office sending us stuff we don’t like or think is up to scratch.

All our poshest frames are handmade in Europe - there are still lots of manufacturers in France, Spain, Italy, Germany etc - there are 1 or 2 only in the UK now. It’s so much for fun checking out their stuff - we like quirky, but there is quirk and there is quirk! Much of what is there is too much and we are looked upon as quite conservative in the UK.

We meet up with optical friends when we are out there to share our finds and even sometimes to buy together … oh, and we tend to have a couple of nice meals out too when there.