Eco Friendly Festive Christmas Gift Wrapping

We’ve got Christmas all wrapped up from eco friendly vintage wrappings to recycling pretty jars. Here’s our sustainable, zero waste gift wrapping alternatives to create some original and thoughtful gifts this season.

japanese furoshiki gift wrapping

Have a go at Japanese Furoshiki wrapping - traditional Japanese wrapping cloths were used to wrap and transport goods but as with many Japanese philosophies it had to have a beautiful aesthetic. Use a vintage scarf or some vintage or preloved fabric to wrap your present and give a gift within a gift. A beautiful eco friendly alternative to wrapping paper that will create a Christmas present to be treasured.

Time to sparkle

Tis the season to sparkle and vintage brooches are the perfect way to add a little extra to both Christmas outfits and gift wrap. Attach a vintage brooch to your finished gift when wrapped, either pinned or with recycled ribbon, and your love one receives a beautiful original piece.

Brooches can be easily converted to necklaces using brooch converters or jump rings, making them even more wearable.

edible gifts

Create the perfect homemade gift made in vintage vessels - vintage jars, mason jars and pretty recycled jam jars adorned with ribbon and upcycled with a sprig of foliage can house a multitude of homemade delicacies from chutney to christmas biscuits or gingerbread. Short of time, simply cheat it and dip mini pretzels into gently warmed chocolate and they make the perfect edible eco friendly gift.

paper wrapped presents

A return to the simple but beautiful, homemade decorations of Christmas past. Brown paper wrappings and string are still a wonderfully simple option that look nostalgic, especially with a sprig of foraged foliage or a decadent ribbon added. Embellish with candy canes, your own artwork or let the kids go wild with some potato printing.

Old vintage magazines, newspapers and sheet music also make brilliant low waste gift wrappings and you can tailor make to suit personalities and hobbies. Pair with paper tape and pop in the recycling when done or flatten and keep to reuse next year.

GIVE A LITTLE, GET A Lot

Giving never felt so good when your wrapping is zero waste and guilt free. Take it to the next level and go completely packaging free with one of our Gift Cards for a perfectly practical gift that won’t be left in the back of the cupboard. Our Gift Vouchers can be used towards any frames, accessories or glasses repairs.

All that’s left is to enjoy something mulled, pop on a Wonderful Life and give yourself over to the festivities.

Wishing you all peace and joy.

Jo

90s sunglasses and Y2K glasses aesthetic

90s and Y2K glasses are having a moment, bust out your bucket hats and take a peep at our range of original preloved vintage noughties and Y2K glasses and sunglasses.

Y2K covers off the late 90s and early-to-mid 2000s and the retro aesthetic is here for those who like clean lines and a little narrow frame nostalgia.

90s narrow rectangle

Inpired by 90s sitcoms and celebrities, rectangular glasses were the shape of the moment - just pair with oversized sweats and cycling shorts for off duty Princess Diana vibes.

Oval sunglasses

Vintage styling and shape of the moment like these original 90s sunglasses by Jean Lafont. Made in Paris, these rare beauties are a fabulous example of a noughties oval cateye in stunning leopard print on amber crystal acetate... meow.

90s minimal metal frames

1990s metal frames are a vibe, from Brad & Jens matching rounds to Brad and Gwyneth’s matching ovals, sleek simple lines and minimistic stylings like these Cazal sunnies with their cut away detailing and intricate metal work make a subtle statement.

y2k oversized sunglasses

Oversized and wrap around sunnies are perfect examples for Y2K and also for giving maximum protection to your peepers from the sun’s glare. Go big and bold for the win.

What’s not to love about noughties and 90s frames - there’s styles for every face shape - checkout our range of preloved planet friendly frames.

Jo

70s sunglasses style guide

Iconic 70s sunglasses styles and the shapes that made them famous. Everything in the 1970s was a statement piece, from the Farah Fawcett’s hair to the denim jumpsuit and the sunglasses were no exception. Here’s our take on sustainable 70s sunglasses styles to get that authentic seventies vibe…

The seventies were about making style statements in mother earth tones like harvest gold, burnt sienna and avocado (seen on both sunglasses and bathroom suites).

Amber and orange tinting was popular, seen on icons like John Lennon and graduated tinting was de jour; lenses dip dyed in tanks by hand (we still do it like this today) to produce a sumptous dark to light fade effect.

Actress Sophia Loren enjoyed showing a bit of eye and wore a washed, eye revealing sheer tint throughout the seventies with her oversized sunnies. Her love of sunglasses was so great she became the first celebrity to have her own eyewear brand. 

Mould breaking materials were being used and bold shapes were being used from influences like the Vietnam War, actors and activists.

Oversized 70s sunglasses

Superiszed 70s shades are having a moment. The bigger the better to make an authentic style statement, plus oversized sunglasses give the most protection from the sun, a happy bonus. Original 70s vintage oversized shades are not only the eco friendly choice - they’re the real deal. Perfect for those days when less is definitely not more.

70s aviator sunglasses

like the kind activist Gloria Steinem wore when she first championed female rights in the 70s. First invented by Bausch and Lomb for RayBan as sunglasses for pilots in the 1930s, aviator sunglasses are so classic that they resurface every decade, but were beloved in the 1970s in both acetate and metal, square and teardrop. We just can’t underplay our love affair with the double bridge and those iconic rock’n’roll lines.

70S BUTTERFLY

The 70s butterfly is feminine and easy to wear shape inspired by the symetry of the butterfly. Metal or acetate, create the perfect 1970s aesthetic and get your boho on with a pair of butterfly sunglasses. Based on the wings of a butterfly, these sunglasses have all the extra vintage design details to make your style stand out from the crowd.

70s SQUARE sunglasses

70s squares are easy to wear, possibly the perfect retro accessory, oversized square frames are the shape of the moment and we can’t get enough of them. The oversize angles give us that superstar look with a laid back 1970s feel. Bold and beautiful and instantly recognizable as sunglasses from this era.

THE DROP SIDE

The devils in the detail and they were big on adding details to sunglasses in the 70s when they invented the drop side. Sitting lower down the frame, usually accompanied by the most intricate designs, makes the vintage pieces more like works of art. If you’re after something extra special go for a pair with drop sides.

During the 70s sunglasses transitioned from being functional, with the sole purpose of sun protection, to fashion accessories that expressed your personal style.

The styles and shapes of the seventies were so good, moden makers are manufacturing them to this day, but there’s nothing like owning and wearing an authentic vintage 70s piece - take a peep at our 70s sustainable sunglasses collection…

peace out

Jo

Daisy Jones & The Six Boho Sunglasses Edit

If you’ve had your peepers glued to Daisy Jones & The Six like we have, you can’t have missed the array of 70s glasses and sunglasses stealing the show, along with seventies florals, fringing and flares to the clogs and crochet.. oh and the music’s pretty ace too.

Take your cue from Daisy and The Six and rock culture and take a peep at our boho vintage eyewear edit..

rock n roll aviators

Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne’s classic aviators - coz let’s face it everybody looks a little bit more rock‘n’roll in an aviator.

70s oversized

Oversized glasses and sunglasses are never out of style. Seventies sunnies are perfect for leaving gigs in the early hours, blocking both the sun and those pesky paps. These babies aren’t going anywhere - turn any of our vintage glasses into sunglasses.

butterfly revival

The butterfly is a really beautifull and easy to wear shape. Metal or acetate, glasses or sunnies create an elegant boho silhouette.

Gold square aviators

Gold square aviators sported by Rod Reyes and Eddie Roundtree in the Daisy & The Six, give a cooler than cool seventies style.

Round frames

Whether its rock‘n’roll John lennon style round metal sunglasses as rocked by Warren, or soft round acetate in mother earth tones - both are perfect for aspiring rockstars.

If your perfect pair is showing as sold out, check out our Personal Shopper Service as we’ll probably have something similar in the studio we can make up for you. We can turn any of our vintage glasses frames into boho sunglasses.

Find your perfect pair and add a graduated tint for that authentic look (add prescription if you wear it).

So book that guitar lesson then shop the store for Daisy Jones & The Six original vintage frames.

Peace out

Jo

Deirdre Barlow glasses legacy

Coronation street’s spectacle style icon Deirdre Barlow and her glasses collection is a bit legendary. Oversized glasses and eighties style pattern and crystal frames are having a moment and we’re not sorry.

Actress Anne Kirkbride, best known for playing the role of Deirdre Barlow in the cobbles from 1972 to 2014, is sadly no longer with us, but her iconic oversize glasses style lives on.

Her love triangle, Deirdre’s tonal 70s glasses and vintage jumper combo really working for her here, pictured with Ken and Mike.

These oversize 1980s Deirdre Barlow glasses frames, with colour pops of piped enamel on a clear crystal base are giving us good vibes.

Even behind bars Deirdre gave good glasses. Delivered in the form of eighties and early nineties oversize owl glasses in fun two tone pearlescent prints.

Dior’s more recent campaign with their inadvertent homage to Deirdre or ‘Diordre’.

Deirdre Barlow we thank you for all your good glasses work over the decades - your legacy lives on.

Take a peep at our vintage Deirdre glasses frames and get your Deirdre on..

Jo

swinging sixties style - glasses and gogo boots

Anything was possible in the sixties, after the war freedom and fun was back on the menu and fashion was breaking all the rules. Biba, beatniks, mod culture and the micro miniskirt - the 60s was an important era for culture, fashion and vintage eyewear as the modern age was born.

60s fashion

Fashion found freedom in the sixties.. graphic colourful prints and monochrome checkerboard, playful peter pan collars paired with white gogo boots - the 60s were all about new and innovative style. Modern fashions became affordable, unlike the couture and women embraced it.

Today we’re wearing vintage prints in a modern silhouette, don a snappy mod suit or keep it classic with a retro shift dress and kitten heels, there’s a sixties style for everyone..

Micro Miniskirts

Cottonbro

Hemlines rose in the sixties, Mary Quant delivered us the micro mini and leg baring became the epitome of 1960s fashion. The miniskirt liberated women allowing much more freedom of movement and they got shorter as the decade went on. The heart of Quant's business was her boutique store Bazaar in Kings Road, Chelsea - she became the brand, wearing her own designs, vibrant and modern complete with her cute Vidal Sassoon bob.

Quant cleverly adapted minimalist styles, her simple shift dresses were often modelled on schoolgirl pinafores and paired with flat shoes. Twiggy modelled micro dresses by the dozen in matching brightly coloured tights.

‘The whole point of fashion is to make fashionable clothes available to everyone’

she said, making her lines affordable for the working woman and her pay cheques. Watch the documentary film Quant to find out more about Mary.

Futuristic 60s space fashion

RODNAE Productions

The 1960s space race was an exciting time and saw young designers creating new out-of-this-world styles. Intergalactic travel and flying cars were happening any day and so moon chic was most definitely a thing.

Andre Courrèges's designs epitomised the space age look, with boundary pushing materials and bold geometric silhouettes made up of space bonnets, dresses and boots made from modern high-tech fabrics in a palette of white and silver metallics.

Paco Rabanne was another designer creating space age fashion. Through the use of plastics he created his signature metallic chainmail dresses, seen more recently reincarnated at Chanel.

At the same time Pierre Cardin was fashioning dresses from white leather and plastic discs. His 1960’s Cosmos collection, included shift mini dresses with cutouts and helmets - it was all essentially wearable art.

To recreate the 60s futuristic look just add metallic eyes with decorative elements, gogo boots, disc earrings and a helmet and stick Barbarella on.. far out.

60s Beatniks

Danya Gutan

The beatniks came from the 1950s beat movement where iconic figures like Jack Kerouac rebelled against the materialism of post war years and everyone listened to frantic jazz.

Hanging out in jazz bars and listening to spoken word poetry, the anti establishment Beatniks adopted the minimalistic nature and ideology of beat style and created their own aesthetic for anybody who rejected the mainstream in favour of artistic self expression and intellectualism. Music, art, poetry and literature were the order of the day.

Beatnik style was anti-fashion, so while mainstream teenagers were donning clever copies of Christian Dior’s hourglass skirts, beatniks opted for lots of black and streamlined silhouettes.

Cigarette pants and black turtleneck sweaters were the uniform of choice, a timeless, chic staple today, with the addition of black leotards for women to allow even more freedom of movement.

To recreate, and I often do, dress head to toe in simple black silhouette and add beret and horn-rimmed glasses.. goatee optional.

60s mods

Being a Mod, or Modernist, in the 60s was a complete lifestyle choice - it was about the clothes, music and clubs. Once Mods clocked off from work they totally immersed themselves in the Mod culture.

Obsessed with getting the right look - they spent all their wages on smart suits, influenced by French and Italian designs, the order of the day was slim silhouettes, androgynous style button down shirts and skinny trousers or bold pop art geometric prints like Yves Saint Laurent’s Mondrian dresses.

The mods listened to Modern Jazz and R&B, while the London Mods could be seen hanging in Carnaby Street parading their fashions while music from the Kinks blared from boutiques.

They clashed with rival youth group, the Rockers, who preferred leather jackets, motor bikes and rock'n'roll, checkout Quadrophenia to see what went down with Mods and Rockers.

Biba

The iconic Biba store, created by Barbara Hulanicki and husband Stephen, was where the young crowd flocked to Biba to buy mod clothes. Biba's aesthetic was inspired by decadent, bygone styles like Art Nouveau and Art Deco in earthy toned colours.

The 1966 edition of Time magazine announced London as 'The Swinging City' and Biba as ‘the most in shop for gear’. Shopping at Biba was more like an event with a unique atmosphere and aesthetic. The store was filled with ornate Victorian furniture and antiques, dimly lit for dramatic effect and nothing was displayed in the windows, which were completely blacked out.

Biba was the store to be seen in and the label to be seen wearing.

60s ACCESSORIES

The 60s are a total inspiration for vintage beauty. From eyeliner styled in feline flicks to doll-like lashes, the origins of make up we wear today.

What could be better than to accessorise with the perfect iconic 1960s haircut? 60’s hair was bold, sexy and as free-spirited as the attitudes. Vidal Sassoon first gave us the bob and then later in the decade the pixie cut as seen on Twiggy and Mia Farrow. Beehives abounded piled high on heads.

Rebelling against beauty salon culture, beatnik and mods wore their hair long, straight and loose ala the Broadway musical Hair. From Jean Shrimpton’s blow dry, to loose waves and eyelash grazing fringes.

Headscarves, worn with sunnies, were massive in the 60s along with headbands and other hair accessories like decorative jewels and I could write a whole chapter on the beret, as glorious now as they ever were.

60S vintage GLASSES & SUNGLASSES

60s glasses were as fun as the era.. round, oval and oversized glasses shaped from thick acetate, geometric designs and retro metal round glasses favoured by John Lennon. Mirrored and coloured lenses arrived - with fun colour pops and graphic printed frames. 1960s glasses became so much more than a medical device, a bona fide fashion accessory and style statement.

German eyewear companies such as Metzler, Menrad, Rodenstock were producing beautiful quality glasses and sunglasses that were made to last.

British designer Oliver Goldsmith created stand out eyewear for high society throughout the 1960’s. The first eyewear brand to feature in the pages of Vogue, cultural icons were seen in Oliver Goldsmiths designs from rockstars to royalty like Audrey Hepburn, Michael Caine, Grace Kelly and Jackie Onassis. Jackie O was rarely seen without her oversized sunglasses.

As the decade went on, frames got bigger and bolder and Oliver Goldsmiths creations got wilder and more headline grabbing, the perfect examples of sixties modernism, like these examples in the V&A.

Take a peep at our 60s style vintage glasses and sunglasses and swing on..

Jo

Pair your eyewear with vintage jewellery

If there’s one thing we love more than eyewear, it’s vintage jewellery and the two make perfect partners. Team your eyewear with authentic vintage and preloved jewellery - we’ve teamed up with jewellery experts William May Jewellers to get their take on the hottest retro jewellery styles to wear with your vintage frames.

Aviators, squares and hoops

For an authentic 70s luxe look (think BBC’s The Serpent), pair your oversized Aviators with classic gold hoops. Oversized thin hoops or smaller creole hoop earrings both work well with aviators and other 70s large wire and acetate frames.

gold creole and skinny hoops from William May

Oversized 80s frames with big bold jewellery

If you want to channel the Lady Gaga’s look from House of Gucci (and frankly who wouldn’t) go with oversized round or square glasses from the late 70s and 80s, team them up with chunky yellow gold jewels.

Big bold chains are having a moment, are oh so retro and are best-sellers at William May, from classic yellow gold, to chains set with sparkling crystals.

chunky gold chains from William May

And to complete the full on House of Gucci look, go for big yellow gold bracelets, dress rings and chunky gold earrings.

vintage gold selection from William May

I’m currently obsessing over gold jewellery and I’d be happy waking up to any of these in my stocking on Christmas morning.. or you could just treat yourself.

Jo

80s glasses - bring the bling

We’re more than a little in love with vintage 80s glasses and couldn’t be happier they’re having a moment. For good reason too.. 80s glasses frames paved the way for current styles and contemporary shapes.

Oversized frames were big in the 1980s with their bold style, colours and silhouettes and bolder still styles emerged throughout the decade in the form of funky shapes and materials - we dare you not to fall in love.

Electric Dreams

The perfect 80s glasses of electric dreams… jewel colours, neons, funky details and exagerated silhouettes. Not for the fainthearted, think Prince and Demi Moore in 80s cult classic St Elmo’s Fire.

Gold 80s glasses

Consumerism was at its peak in the 1980s and flaunting your bling was obligatory. Gold glasses are decadent, flattering and timeless - and like humans, they only get better with age.

80s colour pop

Found more abundantly in the oversized 80s round glasses frames, but brights, clashing patterns and bold palettes can find there way onto any 1980s glasses frame. Fun, fabulous spirit lifting design.

80s rap

In the 1980s, the golden age of hip hop, 80s rap was making its mark thanks to talent like Run DMC, Grandmaster Flash and Mary J Blige who all sported cooler than cool glasses and sunglasses at the height of their fame. Like Cazal, German made 80s iconic pieces beloved by the music industry - get famous.

80s power dresser

Power suits, power lunch, power dresser - the 80s were all about getting down to business. Channeling Melanie Griffith in Working Girl and working it office style, oversized glasses complimented oversized powersuits with obligatory shoulder pads (always a smile when I remove these from an 80s vintage shirt). The 80s were about making it big.

Glasses Chains

Whimsy chain photographed for No Reply Magazine

Not just for secretaries and rappers - chains were big in the 80s and they’re back with a vengeance. 80s chains can be chunky and oversized or delicate and detailed, but lots of gold and bling is mandetory. We love glasses chains - they’re beautiful, practical and your glasses are always where you left them. Check out our latest vintage glasses chains and make like the 80s.

Another beloved era in eyewear history - take a peep at our original 80s vintage glasses and help yourself to the best of the eighties.

Jo