Elegant, eco-friendly, and made-in-France
Luxurious, design-focused and crafted in the Jura, the team behind up-and-coming eco brand Shelter says their passion is creativity and working with natural wood.
The main collection – Renaissance, featuring compressed wood layers and metal, is based around an intense 2-year development for a patent. “The frames are light, thin yet flexible and strong,” Amicie de Bouteiller told Eyestylist in an interview this week. “We developed them making sure that the lenses can easily be placed in the frame. The Smartwood patent is in the glue and the technique we have developed for compressing the thin layers of wood.” Above: model Gabrielle by Shelter worn by Agnès.
A second collection, Douce France, which takes as its reference from the beauty of the French forests, features bio-acetate with the essence and “feeling” of different types of French wood, a choice which includes palm, spruce, walnut burl and crab apple. The materials in this line are exclusively recycled or recyclable.
Making their first appearance at Silmo, the Paris optical fair, in 2018, Shelter who are based in Cran Gevrier, Annecy exhibited at the recent Silmo Hors Les Murs, this year’s “substitute road show” event which opened in Paris in Jardin des Tuileries in October.
The brand’s commitment to sustainable values and eco-friendly production is manifested in many ways from the selection of materials – which includes upcycled wood sheets from the French specialists Marotte – and a commitment to a philosophy of “less is more”: “for each new frame, we attach a real importance to not being wasteful in the use of the primary material.” Find out more at: www.shelter-manufacture.com