Paris West Optical

Now that we're less than 48 hours from Christmas, I guess I should post what will be the "Official Paris West Optical Holiday Hours" for 2008. First the shop will be open the following days/hours: Tuesday 12/23: 10-6 Wednesday 12/24: 10-4 (closing early for Christmas Eve, gift certificates available for you last minute shoppers) Thursday 12/25: CLOSED (Merry Christmas) Friday 12/26: 10-6 Saturday 12/27: 10-5 Sunday 12/28: CLOSED Monday 12/29: CLOSED Tuesday 12/30: 10-6 Wednesday 12/31: 10-6 Don't forget to spend your flexible spending dollars. Thursday 1/1/09: CLOSED (Happy New Year!) Friday 1/2: 10-6 Saturday 1/3: 10-5 No, that's not a 6th grader with a beard... that's the world famous, greatest, bestest, eye doctor in the whole world. (decked out in full winter regalia)... Dr. Larry Rubin. Dr Larry will be IN the following days/hours: Tuesday 12/23: 10-2 Friday 12/26: 10-6 Tuesday 12/30: 10-2 Friday 1/2: 10-6 The entire staff wishes everyone Happy Holidays a

I know, I know, the new, less dark, more commercial sound isn't everyones favorite. (me included) But it sounds nice in the shop and Kendall can sing along. So stop being so elitist and enjoy it...and maybe if you keep the hate mail to a minimum I'll post an older tune as well.

As promised an older song for you.

Now that everyone has over-eaten and awakened from their tryptophan induced comas it's time for everyones favorite shopping day...Black Friday. Ok, well maybe not everyone wakes up at 5 am to wait outside in the cold at the local Wal-Mart for a chance to buy that 9.99 toaster oven. But for those that do... stay away...you scare me. For the rest of you we just wanted to let you know that, YES, we will be open both today and tomorrow. Dr. Larry even has a few spots left on his schedule today for those of you in need of an eye exam. For the rest of you, I hear that Costco has heated socks- buy 2 get 1 free. Line forms to the left.

Silk...not just for breakfast anymore. Wait a minute...that's crazy talk. Let me try again... Silk...not just for ties anymore. Ok that's a little better, still kinda lame as a marketing slogan though, might explain why I sell eyeglasses for a living. Anyway, crazy seems to be a theme for me recently. Continuing that trend are the new handmade silk collection frames from Italian design house Okki. Fortunately this is crazy in a GOOD way. As opposed to the crazy from my personal life. As Jack Nicholson once said "Go sell crazy somewhere else, we're all stocked up here". And what we're stocked up with are absolutely beautiful handmade Italian acetate frames with beautiful Italian silk embedded in them. Yes...inside of them. Each item is handmade and each one is unique. Kind of like snowflakes without the annoying melting part.

I apologize for the lack of new updates on the blog as I've been distracted by October baseball and my hometown teams' quest to end 28 CRAZY years of frustration and disappointment. (sounds like my love life but I don't want to go off on a tangent here). The bottom line is that neither rain, nor bitter cold, nor Bud Selig (and his hideously bad eyeglasses), nor the cinderella Tampa Rays could stop Charlie Manuel and the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies. Big thanks to Cade and his brother at TicketStock, who after a few mis-steps getting the tickets to us, hooked my brother (the better looking , younger one above) and I up with an upgrade for the festivities. I just hope it takes me less than 28 years to pay off these tickets. No, that's not a tomato...that's my fat head...cool "Fightin' Phils" rally towel though. Congratulations again to the entire Phillies roster, the city of Philadelphia and my Dad... who I think has seen each and every one of the Phill

We are proud to announce that on Friday November 14th from 10-6 and Saturday November 15th from 10 -5, we will host the FIRST EVER trunk show for Bevel and Orgreen in the Baltimore market. Stop in and view the entire collection from these 2 great design houses including the brand new offerings for fall. We'll even have have some food and drinks for all those in attendance...and go-go dancers. Ok, maybe I lied about the go-go dancers part, but maybe we can convince Aubrey to debut a new hairstyle.

Check out the cool shades, rumor has it that an unnamed shop in town stocks them...but that's just the word on the street. This is off their previous album "Sink or Swim". Check out their new album "The '59 Sound" too. more about " Now Playing @ ParisWest: The Gaslight... ", posted with vodpod

After many months and many emails, and many phone calls (and lots of begging) we are FINALLY able to say the words that we've been longing to say...Come and get em! We finally have filled all backorders and have EVERY single model and color of the new and improved Gail Spence collection NOW IN STOCK! Until my immediate family reads this, then all bets are off. (I'm turning my cell phone off as I type this) Here we have the 9902 in copper, silver, black and red. And the lovely 9903 in gold, brown, black and grey. don't forget the stunning 9901 in turquoise, copper, red and grey. Also, as an extra added treat, we are happy to announce that we even have the BRAND SPANKING NEW 9904 which is a direct replica of the larger scale original. We have 2 of these (pictured above in turquoise and red)...first come, first served...no bribes accepted (unless they involve homemade chocolate chip cookies.) For more info email us at pariswestoptical@yahoo.com or call (410)528-1877.

Grab an Eiffel...or is that an eyeful? The latest from the genius of Jason Kirk and Kirk Originals.

The future is screwless, hypo allergenic, environmentally friendly and fun. The future is sexy, unique, and flexible. The future is free of the restrictions of solder and screws...looking like something but feeling like nothing. The future is handmade, the finest quality, respectful of the past but not limited by it. The future is laser cut, vibrant, with even the tiniest details accounted for.

The future is bridging fashion with function. The future is daring to take a chance. The future is great design from great companies and great people. At ParisWest Optical the future is the best products, the best service, provided by the best staff in the industry. At ParisWest Optical the future is now.

Straight outta Israel we just received a bunch of handpainted acetate frames from designer Ronit Furst. Kendall likes them, but of course she thinks they're candy and wants to eat them. Nice petite sizes for adults and kids in unique color combinations as well as some unique readers. Kendall modeling a style in grape...er I mean purple. Stop in and check them out.

First the "White Stripes", now the "Black Keys", these 2 man er...2 person bands (apologies to Meg White) have inspired Rudy and I to start our own. Calling ourselves the "Red States" it'll feature me on kazoo and Rudy on tambourine. Look for songs about BBQ, Nascar, and firearms. Or not. more about " Now Playing at ParisWest: The Black K... ", posted with vodpod

Now that summer is almost over, it can mean only one thing. No, not back to school...no, not football...no, not that my mom goes into a depressed state. (actually that does happen, but she self medicates with chocolate so it's all good.) It means that all of our suppliers and factories return from taking the entire month of August off and start sending us cool new frames. I know I used to # the new arrivals, but I think we got to 20 and I ran out of digits to count...since I wasn't raised next to a nuclear reactor we're going to have to deal with it. Anyway, we just got a bunch of cool new specs from the Danish design team at Bellinger. Check out the cool colors and wild temple treatments. Actually they are already finding new homes...above we have longtime customer Margie and her new pair: model Galaxy in Olive/Bronze.

We apologize for this weekends cavalcade of music videos...looks like YouTube exploded all over our blog. Things should return back to normal now... ok maybe normal isn't the best choice of words. In other news, Dr. Rubin (AKA Dr. Larry) will be away at a conference this week. He'll return on Tuesday August 26th and Friday August 30th. Appointments are available.

I'm not sure who told these guys that dancing was a good idea. At least the glasses look good. Your results may vary. more about " Fettes Brot - Bettina (featuring Walt... ", posted with vodpod

We've been swamped with requests for the Gail Spence re-editions, so many that we've stopped taking pre-orders and have just started taking names and emails with requests for colors/models desired. We promise to fulfill all requests as soon as possible....whenever that is. We may achieve peace in the middle east before that at this rate. The good news is we do have ONE model in stock and available NOW. It's pictured above and of course it's a color that nobody has requested...yet. It's a copper front with silver temples and purple screws. Email us at pariswestoptical@yahoo.com if you'd like more info. First come, first served.

Longtime customer Ronnie M. stopped by to pick up his new Orgreen specs yesterday and reluctantly allowed us to post a pic of him with them on. (word of my horrible photography skills precedes me I guess) Ronnie is wearing the Orgreen Dash in dark olive. They look fantastic on him...even though he looks like he wants to hit me. (get in line buddy)

You may remember an earlier post where we introduced you to our "frame fairy". If not, then scroll down to January and refresh your memory....go ahead, I have plenty of time..... Ok, now that that's out of the way, since we're growing at such an insane rate, and we're inundated with new collections and products to view (we currently have over 7000 options in stock), we've had to recruit reinforcements. Introducing the "frame gnome"... a slightly older and wiser relative to our fairy. The gnome (no relation to the garden gnome from those travel commercials), spends her days sorting thru products, labeling them her "favorite ever" or "pretty pretty", as well as dancing to "MissDonna music" and requesting copious amounts of "chokit milk". As fall approaches, stay tuned as we'll have plenty of new "pretty pretty" arrivals in the upcoming weeks.

Summertime...usually a quiet time in the optical industry. Time to relax, clean, organize, and prepare for the fall season. Somehow we didn't get that memo. We just received a ton (really a ton, I weighed it) of new releases from Bevel (pictured on Kendall), Anne Et Valentin, Oliver Peoples, Mosely Tribes, Paul Smith, Theo, Mikli, Maui Jim, Kaenon, Salt, Kate Spade, Takumi, Vanni, Derapage, Urband, Theory, Oakley, Mykita, and much more. So get out of the heat, stop in, grab a glass of Italian lemonade and check out what's new.

We're pleased to announce that after a brief hiatus, we're carrying the Traction Production line again. The super funky and colorful line of handmade French frames had always been a hit with our clients, but we hadn't seen a sales rep since Ricky Martin was cool. (ok, I know Ricky Martin was never cool but it's late and I lost my sense of humor at the craps table in Atlantic City...along with most of my money and probably any shred of remaining dignity. If my girlfriend just could have rolled 6 the hard way...) Anyway... we're happy that we now have a great new sales rep and that the new products are absolutely stunning...stop in and check them out.

We're back. Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. We're currently unpacking new stuff from Theory and Traction Productions. We'll post pics soon. Until then enjoy the video...or stop by and Kendall will entertain you with her rendition. (repeating the words "no handlebars" over and over until your head explodes)

Here's our upcoming schedule for the week of July 4th: Tuesday July 1st: 10-6 Wednesday July 2nd: 10-6 Thursday July 3rd: Closed Friday July 4th: Closed Saturday July 5th: Closed Sunday July 6th: Closed Monday July 7th: Closed Tuesday July 8th: 10-6 Unfortunately the entire staff has to be in court all day Thursday July 3rd due to a shoplifting incident in April (the reason we have to lock up our showcases-in case you were wondering)... the other 4 days we'll be visiting family, watching fireworks and over-eating (well at least that's my plan). We hope everyone has a great and safe holiday and we'll see you on July 8th.