THE FUTURE'S SO BRIGHT, I GOTTA WEAR SHADES
Whether flown in to celebrity pads and video sets to consult, fit or sell much sought after old school shades or whether urgently summoned at 4 a.m. to quickly replace a rare pair of favs stolen by some hooker, Corey Shapiro offers a unique and, of course, discreet one-on-one service for which his high profile clients are surely most appreciative. Avid sneaker collector at heart since the age of 13, Corey exploited his passion for all that is vintage. First by owning a sneaker shop, to pimpin' his own clothing line, he organically made his way to providing glasses fit for the stars, outfitting the brightest of them with nothing but top-notch unworn deadstock rarities ever since.
Based out of Montreal, Vintage Frames Company has been rocking its stuff out of boutiques around the world, catering to the likes of Jay-Z and Lady Gaga amongst equally impressive names such as skaters like Bam and Chad Muska. "Chad is a very interesting individual, he doesn’t stick to a style. Normally, I bring about 120 glasses to see an artist and I’m pretty much dead-on on most but with Chad, I never ever get it right. He’s gone for super intense sporty stuff to big round white Cobain glasses to very little Lennon ones. Chad’s a skateboarder, so he fucks up his glasses and just buys and buys, he’s a beast! As a result, his L.A. store ‘Factory 413’ probably has the most in depth collection from us."
What originally started out looking for about five to ten iconic styles made famous by Run-DMC or cult movies like Scarface eventually evolved into about 1100 various labels, making it quite a vast collection. Priding himself on their extensive knowledge acquired over the company's five short years, Corey adds: "With those frame books we study, catalogues of every glasses ever made, speaking to old opticians, we probably have the greatest knowledge into the history of the glasses and we educate our clients for them to understand their choices."
So what's next for this vintage frame aficionado? Starting this September, watch out for Corey's own version of the Cazal 951 available as a limited release exclusively through his website. At $750 a pop, these babies will be marking the start of a collaboration series with a different label launch monthly for a year. "We're pretty excited about that! We’re also gonna be starting our own home branded line which is kind of the flip of the whole thing."
Although the vintage business isn't always an easy one, looks like Corey finally found the right recipe for his passion to pay off. As he puts it: "I think the key to success is never being afraid to fail. When we first started the company and we were buying old stock, people were laughing at us. And now those same people want to buy their old stock back… whose laughing now?"
