Hong Kong eyeglass frame makers believe custom-made products worth their sweet time
The founding designers cap orders at 30 per month and allot an hour to deeply understand clients’ needs
The four-man band of designers known as madebyavision seeks to change people’s view and see that glasses, just like suits, need to be tailor-made.
Set up in 2011 by 31-year-old former glasses designer Rif Lau Kin-tik along with three former colleagues who were in-house designers for major brands, the business joined the very few companies making spectacle frames locally. Most manufacturers moved their production units to the mainland in the 1980s.
They explained that their unique approach stemmed from a desire to carve out time and space to fully understand their clients’ needs during an hour-long by-appointment session.
Complex cases thus far entailed designing tailor-made frames for people with atypical face shapes, to making a custom-made frame for a primary student with impaired vision to allow better fitting of a specially made lens.
Due to production constraints, madebyavision said it took a month to deliver its finished product, noting that they capped orders at 30 per month. Each pair of glasses was priced at between HK$1,800 and HK$3,000, depending on the client’s requirements.
