Eyeballs Eyewear in Paddington is a Sydney stockist of Anne et Valentin glasses and sunglasses, and we hold both the acetate collection and the fine steel collection in store. You can try any of them on at 342 Oxford Street, about ten minutes from the Sydney CBD, open seven days.
A house that designs around the face, not the shape
Anne et Valentin have been making frames in Toulouse since 1980, and they have never once made a frame that apologises for itself. The house works from an unusual starting point. Rather than drawing a shape and then choosing a colour for it, they begin with the face — the angle the temple leaves the front at, the way a rim sits against the cheekbone, where the weight falls across the bridge — and let the shape follow from that.
The result reads as architecture rather than fashion. Squared-off hexagons, fronts that are deliberately asymmetric, rims that step rather than curve, and a bridge that is often set higher or lower than convention would allow because that is where it actually works. Models such as Dream, Radio, Frisson and Melody are recognisable at ten paces without carrying a single logo, which is a fair description of what the house is trying to do.
Colour laid over colour
The colour is what people remember. Anne et Valentin build their acetate in laminations, so a front cut from a single block reveals a different colour at every bevelled edge — a smoked amber sitting over petrol blue, a chalky mint against oxblood, a grey that turns out to have coral inside it. The combinations change each season and many are never repeated, which is why the collection has such a following among people who have worn the same shape for years and change the colourway instead.
This is not a range to buy from a catalogue image. Laminated acetate photographs flat and looks completely different against skin, so the only honest way to choose is to hold three or four up in daylight. The fine steel collection does the opposite job: sub-millimetre wire in matte and satin finishes, almost weightless, for people who want the geometry without the colour.
What we hold in Paddington
We buy the range broadly rather than picking only the safe colours, and we keep sizes across it because these shapes fit very differently from face to face.
- Acetate fronts in the current seasonal laminates, with several colourways of the core shapes
- The fine steel collection, in the lighter satin and matte finishes
- Optical and sun — most models are available in both
- Sizes held across the range, including the smaller fits
- Prescription lenses fitted to the sun frames, edged in store
How they fit, and who they suit
Anne et Valentin frames tend to sit close to the face and carry more front depth than a standard acetate, so they suit people who want the glasses to be visibly part of the outfit rather than an apology for needing them. The temples are usually set high on the front, which lifts the eye and works well on a face with a heavier lower half. Bridges run generous, so a lower nose bridge is generally better served here than by a classic keyhole.
The one thing we would say plainly: almost nobody picks their eventual Anne et Valentin frame first. Come in, put six on, and let us adjust the one you keep coming back to. If you are travelling in for a particular model, ring 02 9331 4650 first and we will put it aside.
