BL-24 - Flipbook - Page 64
ENTREPRENEURS
A
CLEAR
VISION
Tom Davies — visionary eyewear designer and founder of TD Tom Davies, rede昀椀ning the art of bespoke glasses
By Tom Davies
Tom Davies is a British
eyewear designer and the
founder of the bespoke
glasses brand TD Tom
Davies. He is known for
creating custom-made,
high-quality eyewear for
both private clients and
Hollywood productions,
including 昀椀lms like Wonka
and Cruella, and celebrities
such as Ed Sheeran.
I
never planned a career designing
eyewear. In fact, when I 昀氀ew to
Hong Kong in 1996 with £200
in my pocket, I’d no idea at all
what I wanted to do. I’d just 昀椀nished
an art and design degree and was
seeking an adventure before real life
began. What I stumbled into was an
adventure that somehow became real
life.
A clockmaker looking to branch
out into eyewear took me on as his
designer. I knew absolutely nothing
about glasses, so I improvised. I
bought Vogue, drew frames over the
models’ faces, then asked people in the
bar where I worked what they liked
about their glasses – or hated. That’s
how I began to learn the craft.
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Four years later I came home and
set up my own brand, Tom Davies
Bespoke Eyewear. I was young, broke,
naive and fuelled by the slightly
mad conviction that I could build
the world’s best bespoke glasses
company. Now, more than two
decades on, we’ve got a factory and
stores in London, a team of incredible
craftspeople and even hospital-grade
dry eye clinics. But I still get the same
thrill from making a single pair of
frames as I did when I began.
My frames range from the affordable
all the way up to an 18-carat gold pair
that would set you back £10,000: what
I like to call the “King Midas” version.
As a society, we spend a fortune
