At Charlotte Jones Opticians, we love a great love story – especially one that includes fabulous designer eyewear. After all, how rare and cool is that?

Enter Anne et Valentin. This eyewear brand is known for its challenges to status quo design, as well as its vigorous measures of craftsmanship that ensure beauty, top-notch fit and long-lasting wear. But none of it would ever have happened, had it not been for a chance encounter between two people who would eventually fall in love. Shortly after that fateful day, they became partners. And when Valentin received his optician degree soon after that, the Anne et Valentin store was born in 1980 Toulouse.

But they didn’t stop there. Underwhelmed with how eyeglass customers were so often excluded from the design process, the couple surveyed wearers to learn what they desired to have on their faces – which aspects of the product mattered most? Based on their findings, Anne drew up some designs, and in 1984 the first Anne et Valentin eyewear line was unveiled to the world, with spectacular results. Their combination of meticulous construction and avant-garde styling turned the eyewear world on its ear, and has continued to do so for over 30 years.

They say love makes the world go round. It can also yield some very lovely lunettes, wouldn’t you say?

Find your next pair of Anne et Valentin specs at Charlotte Jones Opticians.