Where the colour sits

When a brand sends me a reference frame to match, it is almost always acetate. Not every time. Close to it.

The usual explanation is that acetate takes longer to make. That is not what people are looking at.

They are looking at where the colour sits.

On 9 September we filmed two black frames in one hand, turned under the same lamp. The still above is from that clip.

Sprayed on

A TR frame is injection moulded. The colour goes on afterwards, as a sprayed coat.

A sprayed surface is never perfectly flat. Looking straight at the frame, nobody sees it. Turn it under a lamp and the reflection breaks up across the front.

Cut from the block

An acetate front is cut from a single block that is already coloured, then polished back.

The colour was inside the material before the shape existed. There is nothing on top of it to be uneven.

Laminated acetate goes one step further. The colour is built in layers rather than printed on, so a polished edge or a cut face still shows the layering. A printed or sprayed effect carries its colour on the skin, and wear or polishing can take it through to the base.

Not the cheap version

Moulding is not the cheap version of acetate. It is a different answer.

Sports lines use nylon and TR on purpose, and for that work it is often the right one. A moulded frame can carry the shape of an acetate reference. It cannot carry where the colour sits.

That is worth saying before a material is chosen, not after the first sample is on the table.

Under that clip, an eyewear creative director wrote that feel, and even sound, is how a frame’s material gets recognised. I cannot put those on a page. Where the colour sits, I can.

When someone says a frame looks expensive and cannot say why, this is often what they are looking at.