Filed under: Julbo, Kaenon, NEWS!, Oliver Goldsmith, PlasticDelux, Rigards, Spectacular Sunglasses, Super, Thierry Lasry
Come by Eye Spy Optical through the month of August for our MONTH-LONG sunglass sale!
Once a year, we round up all of our sunglasses, and go overboard on the discounts!
From the beginning to end of the month, take advantage of discounts from 10-75% off the retail prices of almost every pair of sunglasses in the store. All of our sunglasses can be purchased as-is…or we can make prescription lenses for any of our sunnies!!
We are also discounting *select lines of eyeglasses* for the month…up to 50% off!
So….stop by sooner rather than later to take your pick of hot sunwear before your favorite pair is gone!!
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Filed under: Anne et Valentin, Caroline Abram, EVENTS!, Francis Klein, NEWS!, Niloca, Piero Massaro, Rapp, RES/REI, Theo, Unique Frame Lines
Happy New Year! It is time to celebrate new beginnings and we can’t think of a better way to start 2018 than with a gorgeous new pair of glasses. Oh wait…yes we can…a new pair of glasses that you picked up for a steal of a deal! With discounts that start at 25% and go all the way up to 75% off, it will be hard to get just one pair!
This is a great time to refresh your look with new eyewear, pick up that bold 2nd pair you have been dreaming about or get those computer glasses you have been thinking about for ages.
Anne et Valetin, Theo, Niloca, and Francis Klein are just a few of the brands that will be on sale, so get here early to see everything!
The sale starts at 11am on Tuesday, Jan 2. See you there!
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Filed under: EVENTS!, NEWS!
Chocolate and Beer…2 great tastes that taste great together! Don’t believe me? Join us for a tasting of 4 artisan-made chocolate truffles matched with 4 craft beers and by the end of the evening you will definitely be a believer!
A cicerone from Bitter Pops will be on-site educating participants on the carefully chosen beer selections and a chocolatier from Katherine Anne Confections will be leading the tasting.
Katherine Anne Confections uses fair trade chocolate, locally sourced diary, and seasonal ingredients in each of her hand dipped truffles and other delightful confections. We have tried a few of their delectable chocolates and trust me, they are every bit as delicious as they look!
Bitter Pops is a neighborhood beer shop that specializes in American Craft and International beer. They have a tasting room in the back where you try a sampling of wonderful beer on tap as well as an extensive selection of beer and cider to take home. If you are looking for something, but you don’t quite know what to get, their staff is full of beer-loving and knowledgeable folks that are easy to talk to and who make fantastic recommendations.
Friday, April 21 from 5-7pm
Reservations are required. The cost is $25/person for the tasting.
Only 12 spots are available, so register now at: http://bit.ly/2nH629M
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Filed under: NEWS!, Niloca, Theo
You may have seen a new face around here lately…and that face belongs to our new optician, Debbi, the Glasses Guru. Debbi has over 17 years of experience and she sure knows her stuff! She is a wiz at adjustments – she will get your glasses sitting pretty on your face in no time – she hasn’t met a frame she could bend back into shape yet!
We asked her a few questions so you could get to know her:
- How many glasses do you own?
1 optical and 1 sun! (She gave away all her sunnies – this lady has a heart of gold! But, don’t you worry, she will become a glasses addict in NO time!!)
- Do you have a hobby?
I cook, swim, and love shopping – especially for kitchen wear (perhaps due to the fact that her mom has a catering business).
- There’s an EARTHQUAKE! and you can only save 3 things from the gaping hole forming under your apartment, what do you scoop up?
Photo albums, my journal, and of course, my prized possession – my beautiful, brick red KitchenAid mixer.
- What catches your eye at Eye Spy?
The neon yellow Niloca Clockwork frame….and the Theo Mille+26 in fluorescent red….as seen in the above photo:-)
- If you could be any mystical person/creature who/what would it be?
A unicorn with wings – they are so powerful and beautiful…and I could fly!
- Do you have a hidden talent?
I am a wiz at useless trivia…and don’t even get me started with old R&B!!!
- Tell us something that most people don’t know about you.
I grew up on a farm with 30 dogs. (Whoa!!!)
Debbi is extremely patient, easy-going, and great at picking out spectacular specs…and we are sure you will think so too! Come by the store, say hi, and introduce yourself; She is excited to meet all of our fabulous customers:-)
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Filed under: NEWS!, Niloca, Theo
Dr. Catherine Liu comes to us from Vegas and while she isn’t a fan of the cold weather, she does LOVE Chicago’s food scene. Her fav restaurants include Zaytune Mediterranean Grill, Pleasant House, Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba and all the breakfast delights at Batter & Berries.
As a kid, she dreamed about becoming a basketball player, but as it turns out, there isn’t as much demand for 5’1.5″ pro players:-( She now imagines a life full of chickens, greyhound dogs, travel to far and distant lands and the perfect pair of teal glasses.
One of her most beloved places on the planet is a small farm in England where she attended a cooking school, lived an idyllic life picking veggies and became “one with the land.”
When we met Dr. Catherine this past summer, she was in-town to run a half marathon…and was able to swing by the shop beforehand. We were impressed by her knowledge and experience with a variety of speciality contact lenses. We were also happy to hear of her similar views on spending significant time with each patient in order to provide a comprehensive and thorough eye exam.
She is eager to meet our spectacular customers and provide an eye-opening exam experience! She has also fallen in love with the Theo and Nilcoa eyewear that we selected for her in the above pictures;-)
Feel free to read more about Dr. Catherine’s professional experience here, stop by to meet her on Thursdays and Saturdays …and schedule your next eye exam here!
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Filed under: EVENTS!, FASHION!, NEWS!
Join us at Randolph St Market on Sunday, July 31st!
Looking for something fun to do on you weekend? Love antiques and quirky treasures? Enjoy eating at food carts? Then get your butt over to Randolph St Market and enjoy a day of scavenging at Chicago’s best place to shop for vintage furniture, fashion, clothing, jewelry, antiques, art, indie designer & handbags and glasses!
Iris, the Airstream, will be poppin’ up at the Randolph St. Market again this year and she can’t wait to meet you!
The Queen of Specs will be there to help you find your perfect pair of frames – selecting from a variety of fun and funky glasses and sunglasses.
The fabulous Melissa Yen of Jo Snow will also be joining us for the market, serving up specialty snow cones to keep you cool! So make sure you stop by and get a treat!
The Deets:
Randolph St. Market Festival
1340 W Washington Street, Chicago
$8 General Admission/Kids Under 12 Free
For more ticket info go to: http://www.randolphstreetmarket.com
Can’t wait to see you there!
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Filed under: NEWS!, Sabine Be., Unique Frame Lines
We have some new frames to entice and delight you from a wonderful new (to us) designer. Let me introduce you to our newest collection of french eyeglasses, Sabine Be! But first, some background…
The Queen of Specs had been seeing photos of Sabine Be for a over a year….so, when she made her wishlist for the buying show in Paris, Sabine Be was at the top of the list! The Queen likes to carry independent, small, colorful lines that are designed by opticians. In addition, independent optical designers are so nice to work with…and the quality & workmanship is amazing. Our appointment with Sabine Be was secured for the last day of the buying show. Each day that the Queen passed by the Sabine Be booth, she started drooling and the Specs Wrangler had to pull the Queen away!! Finally, the day arrived! And the clouds parted…..
Are you in LOVE yet? Everyone here at Eye Spy Optical have a bit of a crush, especially on this sassy little cat ear number.
Sabine grew up with a love of design, fashion and eyewear – both parents were involved in the optical world. She knew she would grow up to be a designer of some sort. So after years of work as an optician, Sabine started her own line of unique and colorful frames.
You may not know this but opticians make THE BEST eyewear designers. They pay attention to the little things – what will fit well, what will look good, what will feel comfortable in a frame. Sabine Be is comfortable and fun to wear. She uses beautiful colors and pairs them with fun and easy to wear shapes.
They are also beautifully made – Sabine has her frames made by hand at a small, well-known eyewear factory in France. Detail and quality have served as her guides she has been recognized by the eyewear design world for her talents, she was recently nominated for the prestegious Grand Prix Silmo d’Or 2015 in Paris.
We have a great selection of Sabine Be’s women’s and men’s frames as well as some fantastic accessories. Consider yourself warned…you may squeal with delight when you see them.
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Filed under: FASHION!, NEWS!, Spectacular Sunglasses
Everyone at Eye Spy has been talking about our newest line of limited edition sunglasses since the moment they came in. They are a genius collaboration between eyewear designer Fakoshima and fashion designer Ria Keburia.
Fakoshima is designed by Konstantin Shilyaev, a graphic designer turned eyewear designer who finds inspiration in Japanese design, fashion, architecture, cinematography and electronic music. His designs blend playful design with a futuristic ideas. “We believe that humans will be androgenic with incorporated elements associated now with robots, androids and new technologies.”
Ria Keburia is a Georgian avant-garde fashion designer who lives in Paris and is well known for her crazy clothing and exciting fashion shows. She worked with Fakoshima to create a line of eyewear to accessorize her SS15 collection.
They found inspiration in candy colors, childhood and toys. They use chunky acetates in fun colors, bold graphic shapes and playful takes on iconic frame shapes – cats, circles and brows.
This collaboration is the bee’s knees and they will instantly put a smile on your face!
Which pair do you want?
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Filed under: NEWS!
What do you do with your old glasses when they have grown outdated and the lenses no longer workd for you?
Most people shove them away in the back of a drawer and forget about them or throw them away.
A couple of Canadian artists Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett decided to put some of those old lenses to use…14,000 of them!
They created a large scale instalation named Sea/See/Saw on the front of Istanbul’s Pera Museum overlooking the Bosphorous river.
Thousands of lenses hang and glitter in the sun, reflecting the river water and moving with the breeze.
What a beautiful way to turn trash into art!
We know, you probably won’t turn your glasses into art like this, but you can dig them out of those drawers and give them new life. We collect old glasses and donate them to a great organization called New Eyes for the Needy. They help provide glasses to those less fortunate and keep your old frames out of the landfill.
If you do decide to make art out of your old frames, send it over, we want to see it!
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Filed under: FASHION!, NEWS!
“When you walk in town and you see someone with my glasses, the glasses will [get] all your attention”
Here at Eye Spy Optical we LOVE glasses (duh!) and we LOVE recycling (yeah!). Cyrus Kabiru, a Kenyan artist, brings together the best of both worlds with his out-of-this-world creations.
As a kid he wanted glasses, but wasn’t able to get them, so he started making his own. He works with found materials, transforming them into wearable sculpture. “I really love trash. I try to give trash a second chance. I change it to be something else, which is like it will stay for more than 100 years now.”
While they probably won’t improve your vision, you have to admit that they could give you a new outlook on life.
Watch a video and learn a little more about him at This Is Colossal and at his website.
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