Make Way For O'Malley

The O’Malley is one of the iconic brand-defining frames for Oliver Peoples. In a recent nostalgic turn through his personal archives, founder and creative director Larry Leight was inspired by some of the brand’s originals with rare tinted glass lenses. And to the delight of so many fans has decided to reissue what was at first three and has now become four of the brands original frames. The Oliver Peoples Vintage Circa 1987 collection includes the famous O’Malley, Leight’s own personal favourite. Sunglasses Shop is delighted to be one of the few select stockists to be selling this prestigious limited edition piece.

Oliver Peoples are serious pioneers in eyewear. The term ‘retro inspired’ rolls off the tongue when we speak of eyewear today, however when Oliver Peoples first started selling vintage and then interpreting it for themselves, the rest were looking to futurism. Everyone else is finally catching on and Oliver Peoples particular take on vintage is what everyone is looking for in their eyewear.

We can all see that the Oliver Peoples O’Malley is a trendy frame today, but when Oliver Peoples were first making the style and the other early frames that it was unique and laid the foundations for how eyewear is designed and worn today. So fashionable is the style today, that one might even wonder where it’s geeky, preppiness has gone. Many of the frames that we sell today have owe much to this brand and to the O'Malley.

The Oliver Peoples O’Malley was inspired by and named after Los Angeles Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley. The unisex, plastic frame with round lenses, distinctive keyhole bridge and double hinge pins creates an elegant, definitive and classic style. To the dismay of many it was put out of production for manufacturing issues around 2009. Today a limited run produced with the same care and attention to detail as the original pieces forged at the same Japanese factory first used, the O’Malley is available once again. As superb as a sunglass as it is an optical frame, the Oliver Peoples O'Malley is a special piece of eyewear that is really the original retro frame of it's kind. It brings an authenticity and class to whoever wears it that is unmatched.

Many eyewear brands appear in movies, however it is few that have really made their mark on literature too. Amongst the obsessive dropping of names like Ralph Lauren, Paul Smith, Versace, Giorgio Armani, and Christian Dior, Oliver Peoples eyewear was essential in making the image just so in Bret Easton Ellis’ satire American Psycho. When the movie was brilliantly brought to the screen in 2000, this was honoured and Christian Bale's excellent Bateman wore Oliver Peoples' O’Malley frame.

Patrick Batemen fans that’d have killed for a pair can relax and maybe celebrate with dinner at the Dorsia which opened in South Kensington last May. Whether or not we can get in at the Dorsia, Sunglasses Shop will be celebrating when the Oliver Peoples O’Malley arrives here around March.