From necessity to style statement: Oliver Goldsmith x The Rake
For nearly a century, Oliver Goldsmith has defied conventions and transformed eyewear into wearable art. Now, the ingenious spirit of this iconoclastic British brand is part of The Rake Atelier. Explore the Oliver GoldSmith collection on TheRake.com.
Speaking about the quintessential British luxury, few names command as much reverence as Oliver Goldsmith. For nearly a century, this venerable house has steadfastly emerged as the vanguard of eyewear design and craftsmanship. Their singular obsession? To transcend the humble spectacle from its purely functional origins into an exceptional work of wearable art that elevates personal style.
This devotion to innovation and executing the unprecedented makes Oliver Goldsmith's addition to The Rake Atelier's curation so remarkable. Like the great ateliers of yesteryear, each frame is a masterwork conceived through the unity of generational expertise and a borderless creative spirit.
The Goldsmith legacy traces back to 1926 when founder Philip Oliver Goldsmith unveiled his pioneering creations from a mobile showroom on the streets of London. Eschewing the conventional, he expertly manipulated the era's newest material - vibrantly hued plastics - into the world's first coloured spectacle frames. This radical artistic vision planted the seeds for nearly a century of paradigm shifts in eyewear design.
It was Philip's son, Charles, however, who truly revolutionised eyewear's place in the cultural zeitgeist. Seizing on the nascent 1940s desire for self-expression through accessories, Charles conceived the iconic "Sun Specs" — luxury sunglasses positioning eyewear as high fashion objects. Within a week of displaying these opulent creations at London's premier stores, they had sold out, ushering in the sunglasses craze.
Soon, Oliver Goldsmith's emphatically original designs radiating wit and daring commanded the attention of celebrities and royals alike. The library of famous visages having donned Goldsmith frames reads like an almanack of 20th-century pop culture: Audrey Hepburn's cat-eye "Manhattan" shades in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Grace Kelly's classical elegance, the irreverent cool of Michael Caine and The Rolling Stones.
Today, under the curatorial direction of founder Philip's great-granddaughter Claire Goldsmith, Oliver Goldsmith's peerless heritage has been resuscitated and reinterpreted for the modern age. Each frame beckons as an immaculate special object crafted by hand in England, suffused with layers of history and symbolic of British luxury at its finest.
For The Rake Atelier's devotees, acquiring an Oliver Goldsmith frame represents an investment in invention, a wearable art form linked to a rich, century-spanning narrative of taste, elegance and rebellion.
