Today we offer you a discussion with Alice Violier, the creator of Seconde Vue. From her career to the creation of Seconde Vue, including a few words about the eyewear industry.
Introduce yourself?
I am Alice Violier and I created Seconde Vue in November 2021. I had been working at L'Oréal for almost 5 years in digital then in media and advertising and I left my position in December 2021 shortly after launching Seconde Vue. I live in Paris and my grandfather, André Perceval, was an optician. He created Maison Perceval in 1961 and Clin d'oeil Opticiens a few years later which now represent 15 independent and committed stores in the north-eastern quarter of France. A family business run by my mother Anne Perceval Violier and my uncle Arnaud Perceval. So you could say that I have been immersed in eyewear since I was little!
Why did you create Seconde Vue?
Seconde Vue was created following a discovery I made in 2021. While rummaging through boxes in the cellar of one of the family stores, I came across vintage frames from the 80s and 90s that had not been sold, and therefore never worn, and which were sublime. Personally, I am a big consumer of second-hand and vintage fashion, I find something unique in these clothes and accessories. Noble materials, always very trendy cuts. When I found these frames, I had a bit of an epiphany: why buy new frames from new productions when there are high-quality prescription glasses and sunglasses with a very assertive style that has nothing to envy of the new creations?
Obviously we first asked ourselves the question of stock before launching the project. And I think you can't imagine the number of pairs sleeping in cellars, professional or private closets.
We are lucky to have passionate opticians within the group who today help us to refurbish all the vintage and second-hand glasses that we find. There is a whole eyewear craft behind each refurbishment.
What does your vintage glasses upcycling consist of?
Upcycling at Seconde Vue means giving a new look, a new look to a frame with a very simple or slightly aging style by adding colored lenses. This allows us to elevate a classic frame into ultra trendy and very current glasses. We work with Essilor, a French glassmaker and world number 1 in terms of lenses.
We have fun adding colored, blue, gradient, mirrored lenses to optical frames to give them a new look. We finish with an ultra stylish and colorful frame that is very popular! People are daring to wear color more and more and it's great!
What does the vintage glasses accessory mean to you?
Glasses are first and foremost health equipment. For those who need correction, for those who are sensitive to the sun, to different brightnesses. But glasses have become a real fashion accessory over the years. At the same level as a bag, a pair of earrings, we wear our glasses to increasingly assert a style and an identity. Vintage glasses also offer a timeless style, an incredible choice in terms of colors, sizes and shapes. Glasses today are collected, they have really become an accessory and we are not displeased!
What is your favorite era since the 50s and why?
I love the 60s-70s, for the oversized vintage glasses, the colored lenses. It's always very fun to dive back into old films or old magazines from those years because the glasses were crazy! These models are coming back more and more to the forefront, we dare to wear oversized glasses, we see more and more of them! An era that I also love enormously, it's the 90s and their much thinner, blacker, narrower pairs. Ultra chic, trendy, easy to wear frames. They too are coming back in force!
Why look to the past when it comes to bezels?
Fashion is an eternal restart, we know that. Today's designers are bringing back to the forefront frames from the 60s, the 80s, the 2000s. The past years are such an immense source of inspiration that it is a real pleasure to hunt for vintage glasses. With each discovery, we feel like we have found a treasure. Also, collecting, searching for, hunting for new frames is a unique moment with many very different encounters that remain engraved!
What made you want to work in this field?
Since I was little, I see my grandfather, my mother, my uncle in the eyewear world. More generally, I have always loved fashion and accessories have a very big place in my heart. Eyewear is obviously part of it.
I also had the chance to discover all the craftsmanship that goes into making a pair of glasses, to discover the creative processes, from the drawings to the first cuts to the final result of the glasses. It is also this whole process that fascinated me in the manufacture of this small object.
What do you imagine as the future for glasses?
I think that glasses will increasingly be considered as a fashion accessory. The final touch to a look, the way to define an identity, to stand out. I also think that in this sector there is a crucial importance of sourcing raw materials and manufacturing glasses. I imagine more and more brands turning to local and traceable production. More and more transparency towards the consumer on the products they buy. I also imagine, as in clothing, that second-hand in glasses will be increasingly put on the front of the stage and normalized.
