Our flagship store, which caters to clients from all over town, and particularly from SoHo and TriBeCa, was the first eyewear store to introduce this Berlin-based luxury maker of beautiful eyeglasses to the United States.
It was an afternoon/evening of “ eyewear craftsmanship, bubbles and macaroons,” and a chance for Selima Optique SoHo customers to meet Daniela, who came over from Berlin to show the Lunettes Kollektion.

Luxury does not mean ostentatious logos and giant publicity budgets. We like to know that each Selima Optique frame is made by people we’ve worked with for for years, decades even. These craftsmen start with a little piece of acetate and, in the end, after a lot of work, deliver a pair of frames. [more] Everything, from the shaping of the front and the temples, to putting those elements together with the hardware, and buffing - frequently, in the case of multicolored designs, even in sculptural shapes to reveal all the layers of acetate - and polishing, is dome by hand. 

The first image shows a finished frame in the middle of the tools involved. The lenses are already in place because that’s how we like to judge samples when we visit the workshop. The remainder of the images give you a further idea of the incredible manual labor involved in each pair of Selima Optique sunglasses or optical frames. Doesn’t knowing that make it even more fun to buy your next pair?

We work with several small workshops/factories in France, all of which are dedicated to manual craftsmanship. The images here were taken in the place that fulfills our custom orders (such as special pieces in buffalo horn), which is run by Anne Dorilla. Next time we go to the other workshops to proof the new samples, we’ll take tons more pictures to show you what goes on there.

Even though Arni is  - like many Selima Optique frames - a unisex style, it is the women who have slowly but surely made Arni into a Selima Optique classic, epitomizing ‘Sexy Smart’. Case in point:  Anne Hathaway , who has been photographed wearing her Arni on various occasions. Or check out Karen, one of our favorite Instagram muses here and here .

Image: “Kelsey in TriBeCa, September” by Elsbeth Struijk van Bergen

A  few pictures from the  WHIT, Orley  and   Erin Fetherston   shows

Above: June Ambrose Sporting the Selima Optique x June Ambrose MISSY sunglasses. Seen here (L to R) with her daughter, with Rocsi Diaz, and with a friend from Sheen Magazine. The popular Missy is currently available in Black and in Blue Floral

This exclusive collection of Selima Optique’s classic optical  Andy frame consists of seven colors, inspired by the sights and sounds of New York City in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s -think “when Disco met New Wave”, but translated into eyewear! [more]

The design of the frame itself, a mainstay and bestseller in the Selima Optique collection, was inspired by the King of Pop Art himself; Warhol. 

Selima Optique x Colette is hand made in France of high quality crystal acetate. The UV400 lenses were custom tinted to match the frames, and are meant for indoor/outdoor, daytime/nighttime use. 

A ‘Thank You’ to the models: Dinu, Jeroen, Shanti, and Sophie.