#jerome mage

Studio visit with eyewear designer and founder of Jacques Marie Mage, Jerome Mage for a collaboration between JME x Monocle

Hello sentients !

Being my first blog I would like to give an introduction for today's topic and my reason behind writing it... EYE GEAR (yes the topic for today) is one of the products that I love to collect, wear & even design.

Here, at my first blog, I want to share an experience about a particular incident that happened very recently. A few days ago I was browsing on the internet (one of my regular exercise of checking new products and have a design world update), and I came across some nice transparent glasses.

Image courtesy: https://daman.co.id/10-shades-of-robert-downey-jr/

These I saw being worn by my favourite actor Robert Downey Jr. YES! the IRON MAN a.k.a. TONY STARK to be precise he wore it during the promotions of the movie The Avengers – Endgame. These glasses do look kind of a nerdy, but are impeccably crafted spectacles.

I didn’t know what brand it was and I tried searching with the help of this image and many similar images of him wearing the same glasses of the same event and still it was hard for me to find the details or any other information related to it.

Generally people do mention or tag the brand of the wardrobe/accessories in particular a sunglasses, for example Ray-Bans. But there is no one talking about this spectacle I was searching for. Though I found few posts on different websites or blogs, where there is list of sunglasses brand Robert dons, but again! No sign of this eye gear.

ONE FINE DAY, I was casually checking random posts on Pinterest and I found an eye-wear which was very much similar to the one I was looking for, it was a black bold frames with opaque finish and I assumed it was the same glasses, but with a different color and feel.

Image courtesy: https://jacquesmariemage.com/product/609/

So I went ahead and clicked the image . . .

And a site opened with a brand named "JACQUES MARIE MAGE" from Los Angeles. I saw the same black frames on the web-page and it had few more options of different colors and finishes in the tab below. The last option was "Clear" finish and THAT was IT!

Image courtesy: https://jacquesmariemage.com/product/607/

It’s an amazing bold frame with a clear crystal look, well polished Acetate frame, 18K Gold for hardware like hinges & the skeleton frame with an optical lens of CR39 Light Blue tint.

The Maker

The glasses are limited edition, handcrafted in Japan and Designed in Los Angeles by the Designer Jerome Mage, the maker morphs the inspiration from past history and blends it into a product of future. The glasses are called ASCARI CLEAR, it is named after a beloved racer Alberto Ascari.

Image Courtesy: https://jacquesmariemage.com/story/

The Brand

JACQUES MARIE MAGE, A producer of rare collectibles which includes designed eyes gears. The designs are sleek, slick and bold. The products, comes with an elegant packaging which is again well designed to match the brand language.

Image courtesy: https://jacquesmariemage.com/product/607/ 

Please go ahead and check the brand web-page for more details about the art pieces and even about the maker Jerome Mage.

https://jacquesmariemage.com/home/

Me . . .

Now let’s come to a point where I will conclude here, why I was chasing behind the information of this astonishing piece of accessory. As I mentioned earlier that I love to collect, wear & even design, I wanted to have this as my latest acquisition. But honestly they are way out of my affordance, as they are priced at $610.

I had no other choice but to have an alternate option of buying similar looking glasses. So I went to stores to look out for the exact same copy, which was hard to find but at least something near to the look & feel. 

As I wanted these for my regular use, first I tried all optical stores I could reach and searched for spectacles of almost all available brands, but they didn't any have frames that would satisfy me. But I wasn't going to compromise on THAT DESIGN. And then I decided to MAKE IT.

I decided to reach the local markets at town (South Mumbai) where I could get good frames but the ones of the sunglasses. I found a few wayfarers with good edgy frames, a shape which I could comprise with, & they were really very cheap too. I short listed them, and bought two of them.

As these glasses that I found do not exactly look like the end product, but I needed it. Due to these tints of sunglasses, I just changed the lenses to the lenses of the current optical power of my eyes

And I was pretty much done with a new pair of glasses styled by me, a new edition in my eye wear collection. And I am really happy with this outcome!

But being a fan of these glasses (and the hero!), I still am hoping to either buy the JMM ASCARI CLEAR one day, or at least for now I can somehow replicate the design at my end – Yes, I am pretty much passionate of this particular design of eye gear, and I am still trying to acquire it.

You can check the image above the glasses i got done, and me wearing it in the previous introductory blog. Other than this I have few more transparent clear frames in my collection, one of them is in the image below, they are pretty cool and they are with Zero optical power.

Concluding here with the information, that in case you need a helping hand in buying or making such frames for yourselves or for someone, you can reach out to me. I am all open to orders and feedback's! You can just leave a comment below or Ask me and I'll be there for your help.