The short answer to this question is yes; But a better answer considers value through design work and scarcity rather than just quality, and whether you really want to wear slightly shiny sunglasses.
Let’s start with quality. With glasses, quality depends on a few things: the acetate, the hinges, the method of attaching the hinges, the smooth finishing, and the lenses.
Most people use the same acetate suppliers (Mazzuchelli, Taciron), similar hinges (OBE) and run the pins all the way through the arms (so they can be repaired and replaced). Some of these, like hinges, are easy to notice. Finishing and in-store fittings are more subtle.
But sometimes cheap sunglasses just look cheap – most of the less expensive ones use acetate, which makes them weak and brittle. A pair of glasses from a high-street brand can feel as if they’re just waiting to be broken in half.
This is one of the slightly confusing things about Jacques Marie Madge (JMM) Glasses. Because they use fairly thick frames, people talk about how solid and good they look. But it’s more acetate.
Yet, JMM lives up to all those quality points, and adds distinctive points like developing its own grip. These are very well made glasses, unlike the designer brands you can buy from your local optician, many of which are famously made by one company, Luxottica.
However, the JMM glasses that I’ve been wearing for the past few months – those zephyrin in tokyo colorPictured above – were £830. What can justify that price?
Well, partly because of some things you don’t want to pay for. When we visited the JMM store in Hollywood in the spring, most of it was taken up by a giant distressed metal horse leaping over half of a similarly distressed metal car. There was a velvet rope and a waiting room.
The glasses themselves also come with a lot of packaging – all pretty, and more tasteful than a horse, but it’s the kind of thing you keep on top of the shelf for a while, just because you think you paid for it.
However, part of the price depends on a few things that elevate JMM glasses and make them truly special.
The way you usually make money with sunglasses is to create one or two popular styles and then mass produce them for years. The worst way to do this is to create lots of designs, all interesting in different ways, and make many of them in limited editions.
This is the business model of JMM. And while you could say this is just another strategy to make money – because it creates hype which means everyone will want the limited number of pairs and will pay more for them – it’s definitely the harder way to do it. Glasses must be really desirable.
The frames themselves also involve a lot of details making them complex, unusual, and time-consuming to make. Perhaps unnecessarily so.
For example, my arms are made of two layers of acetate – one tortoiseshell and one transparent – which makes the arms a subtly brighter, more translucent color than the front. This also enables them to create a clear section that wraps around the ears, but leaves the arm looking like a straight line.
There are many of these details, all small and perhaps, as I said, unnecessary. But you can’t argue that they aren’t working on the product.
Design-wise, the frames are also consistently interesting. I spoke to some friends and collectors of vintage glasses, and they all had reservations about the brand, but also all praised the sophistication of the designs.
As one of them said: “It is not easy to create so many designs related to classic pieces, but each also has its own real personality.”
For me, the problem with designs is that they are often quite bold and for this reason do not suit many people. The frames are thick, often oversized, and sometimes come with attractive details on the arms.
When I visited the London store (which I must say, is nicer than LA and has some very knowledgeable staff) there were only two frames that actually worked for me, and This Zephyrin was easily the best.
Whether you like the brand or not, this will probably be the biggest hurdle for most readers, as they have a natural tendency towards a restrained style.
Dramatic designs also create another problem – the kind of person who wears JMM.
Basil Khadiri, who ran a beige store in Paris, was an early exponent of JMM.. But after a while he stopped carrying them and said in a recent interview with us: “They’re well made, but they’ve become something flashy, worn by a certain kind of person.”
Because glasses are a bit flashy, they attract people who dress like them – and, I think, also people who collect glasses and watches, who want a new pair every season and want them as status symbols*.
This probably shows how arrogant I am, but honestly that’s my biggest problem with JMM – not the prices or the shops, but the association with someone who consumes fashion in a much more ostentatious and hype-driven way than I do.
Since I’ve been wearing my Zephyrin pair in permanent style, a lot of people have asked what I think of them – are they any good?
The answer is yes, they are good, and actually not bad value considering everything they contain. But that doesn’t mean they’re for you, even if they are exciting.
I really like my pair, but there weren’t any other models that suited me, and they wouldn’t be the first pair of sunglasses I would buy. I’ll always buy a more classic pair first, and I’ll always wear them more.
My JMM is a great way to add a little interest to an outfit when I feel it’s needed – to make it a little dressier. blurry scalePerhaps. In the same way you add a pop of pattern or color to an outfit that is otherwise quite plain.
I wouldn’t even rule out getting a second pair – if there’s another design that really suits me – because I really enjoy and value them. But I know they will never be my default; This isn’t my style at all.
*An interesting topic here is why sunglasses have become such a collectible item. This may be because watches are a bit trendy, or perhaps because outfits these days are quite plain and tonal.
