Cutler and Gross in New York
Our Carroll Gardens shop holds 150 Cutler and Gross frames across 75 models. Most of them are optical rather than sunglasses, which is unusual, and it says something about who wears this brand.
A Brand Founded by Two Opticians
Graham Cutler and Tony Gross met in the early 1960s at Northampton College in England, where both were studying to become ophthalmic opticians. They founded the brand in 1969 and opened the first store two years later at 16 Knightsbridge Green in London.
That detail matters more than it usually would. Most eyewear brands are founded by designers who arrive at glasses from fashion. Cutler and Gross came at it from the other direction, from people who had spent years measuring eyes and fitting frames, and who understood that a frame has to work on a face before it can be beautiful.
They hired a framemaker named George Smith, who made each pair by hand in a workshop above the shop. Word spread, and what started as a small bespoke service became the place artists, musicians and writers went for glasses.
What Is on the Wall
Seventy-five models, and the balance is worth knowing before you visit. Well over a hundred of the frames are optical, with a smaller run of sunglasses. This is a collection for people who wear glasses every day rather than a sunglass wall with a few optical shapes attached.
It is also overwhelmingly acetate. Cutler and Gross built its reputation on bold acetate shapes with unusual colour, and the collection reflects that, with a smaller number of metal and titanium frames alongside. The Graham series is here, along with a wide run of the numbered models the brand has used since the beginning.
Quiet Branding, and a Factory of Their Own
Cutler and Gross put their name on the inside of the temple, in small gold lettering, where only the wearer sees it. There is no monogram on the front and nothing on the outside of the frame to announce the brand to anyone else. What identifies a pair from across a room is the shape, the colour of the acetate and the way the edges are finished, which is a deliberate position in a category that mostly sells recognition.
The frames are made in the brand's own factory in Domegge di Cadore, in the mountains of northern Italy, where the eyewear industry has been concentrated for over a century. Not outsourced to a contract manufacturer, but their own building and their own people, which is rare at this scale.
The brand has never been trend-driven. It has made the same argument for over fifty years, which is that glasses should be beautiful objects that happen to correct your vision, rather than medical devices that happen to be visible.
Seeing Them at Carroll Gardens
We are an independent optical practice, and we have been in New York since 1989. There is a symmetry to carrying a brand founded by two opticians, and it is part of why this collection ended up as deep as it is.
The Cutler and Gross frames live at Carroll Gardens. We do the eye exam, take the measurements and fit the lenses ourselves with ZEISS optics, in the same shop where you chose the frame. Progressives included. Nothing is sent away to a lab you never see, and we are here afterwards when the frame needs adjusting.
Because the collection is mostly optical and mostly acetate, it rewards trying things on. Acetate shapes sit differently on different faces in ways a photograph will not tell you, and with seventy-five models on the wall there is room to find out.
We accept VSP and most major medical insurance for the eye exam. Frame and lens coverage varies by plan and we are happy to check yours first. The collection changes as frames sell, so what is on the wall today is not a permanent fixture.
Come and See Them
Walk-ins are welcome. If you would like lenses the same visit, book an eye exam and we can usually have you finished in about an hour.
Carroll Gardens · 315 Court Street, Brooklyn · (718) 596-3740
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