Specs Appeal
At Westside Provisions District, red-hot eyeglass outfit Warby Parker opens the doors to its second Atlanta location.
Chances are, whether you’re reading this magazine on MARTA, in a coffee house or on a bench at Ponce City Market, a bespectacled someone within spitting distance snagged his or her stylish frames at Warby Parker.
The New York-based company’s frames in both the optical and sun categories are seemingly everywhere these days, and with good reason: They’re classic but modern, timeless yet fresh and they sell for a fraction of the going rate for designer frames found nearly anywhere else. And Atlantans, just as our counterparts in other urban areas, are lapping them up, so much so that the company opened the doors earlier this summer to its second location in our city with a sunny space at Westside Provisions.
Warby Parker’s customer model is simple: The company sells its own eyewear at an affordable price by designing glasses in-house, and working directly with customers. For every pair purchased through Warby Parker, a second pair is distributed through non-profit partners, like VisionSpring. With the successful 2014 opening of its first boutique in The Shops Buckhead Atlanta, Warby Parker has been poised to open another location here, and Westside Provisions proved to be the perfect spot. “Westside Provisions is such an eclectic and vibrant scene, and we’re thrilled to be among such wonderful neighbors,” said Dave Gilboa, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker.
While the two locations offer the same selection and services—sameday, non-prescription purchases; optical measurements; and frame fittings and adjustments—the aesthetics set them apart from one another. Buckhead’s location looks somewhat like a professor’s study, with tufted-leather banquettes and dark wood shelving displays, while the Westside location mimics a creative workshop, starting with its full-length front windows and doors. In the new space, a can’t miss – it mural in shades of blue—the work of Brooklyn-based artist Josh Cochran—takes up an entire wall at the rear of the store, adding a lively urban vibe to the warehouse-like space. Tabletop brass library lamps and caramel wood display cases add warm contrast that encourages patrons to linger and enjoy the space.
A couple ways to kill some time? Leaf through a copy of Warby Parker’s own tongue-in-cheek title, “50 Ways to Lose Your Glasses,” or one of dozens of other books that are sold in the store. You can also try on a pair of Benchley sunglasses, which for a limited time the Westside location will exclusively sell in Crystal, a re-release from the limited-edition Concentric Collection of 2014.
STORY: Alexa Lampasona
