Birth
of the MirrorBirth
of the Mirror
"Better
see 
Till
the end of the XVIIIth century, glasses and "estuys" were sold by
haberdashers and bimbelotiers among which some moved from village to village
in the style of the peddlers who succeeded them.
In 1770, some of these salesmen wanting to improve the quality of their products, got organized in a sort of corporation, the "Companies of mirror traders, dealers and opticians".
They are now well established, have a shop and work with much more care than before. Someone make golden, silver watches, in tortoiseshell, perfect them with a concern for maximal comfort. Stems do no longer stop at the temples, and take the most varied forms, spatula, wing, folding. Thanks to the creative spirit of the opticians of the XIXth and XXth centuries, glasses knew a continuation of perfections and novelties both in form and in the materials used.
Opticians are more and more numerous, more competent also, and some people are real creators.
It will be necessary to wait for the end of the Second World War to reach a real revelation. It was in 1950 that Pierre MARLY was the first one to create glasses as a fashion accessory. Stemming from a modest environment, Pierre MARLY, having been a pupil at a photographer's, a worker-fitter in the optical section of the Samaritan, the foreman then the manager of engineering and of supplies at the LISSAC brothers, decides to create his own ideas of frame.
His purpose was to reach the highlight of quality, service and luxury. According to him, it is necessary to see glasses reach the dignity of an accessory. When in 1948, the young worker obtained his optician's diploma, he launched the first real "fashion" for glasses and quickly became the "couturier" of glasses. Leaders of State and stars who wish to have a personalized glance became customers.
By
1960, he launched a series of extravagant models which the press seized upon
and dressmakers become aware that glasses also were a market in the same way
as accessories,
flavors etc. all stars in marketing.
Finally,
for the happiness of the eyes, it is a whole new world: the variety, the elegance
of glasses allow to conceive models in accordance with the face, the toilette
and the various day and evening dresses. Glasses were no longer prostheses but
the supplementary refinement which allowed women as men assert their personality.
Today glasses are more discreet, and are treated as real jewels and made in new materials which offer a range of almost unlimited tints. With sunglasses, we obtain fireworks of colors and forms. As for the face-à-moi, it has discreetly returned fashionably.
Since
1970, in spite of the arrival en masse of brand names (Dior, Saint Laurent,
Courrèges, Cartier, Fred, Porsche, Armani, Swaroski and others), Pierre
Marly remains faithful to his image of an avant-garde optician concerned about
creating a number of limited models and diffusing them in small series. It will
be every year a strong, creative, sometimes provocative collection in unusual
forms, in audacious colors; a sophisticated collection, using only top-grade
natural materials such as wood, buffalo horn, tortoiseshell, leather …
Pierre Marly completes his collections with exclusivities picked up from abroad and of which he is the only distributor in France.
Pierre Marly's philosophy: insure visual comfort, advise fashion accessories, the clothing element which will make forget any visual defect, determine the criteria which will contribute to the choices of the frame. If a customer knows Pierre Marly, it is certainly because of the incomparable quality of the service which is proposed to him or her by a competent staff in a decor surrounded by luxury and by seriousness.
