Our Recent Trip to the Jura Region of France

The luxury sunglass-making capital of the world.

We landed in Geneva and rented a car for our short trip into the mountains of France. The scenic drive had me gripping the door handles as Kirsti seemed to fly around the high mountain turns on tiny roads. That is, until we realized we had collected a stream of cars behind us! Pulling over wherever we could to let the locals pass, we both had a good laugh.

A couple of hours later, we pulled into our new partner atelier. Warm greetings and the excitement of finally meeting the owner and his small team in person were followed by a tour of the factory floor.

It was a Friday after 2 p.m., so most of the artisans had already left for the weekend. Only a few remained, but watching them work on our next order was fascinating. The care. The attention to detail that goes into every pair. You could feel the love each artisan had for their craft.

The second-generation owner was able to sit at almost every machine and demonstrate each step in the production of our sunglasses.

Ever wonder how they're actually made?

The process:

• Selection of acetate sheets from Italy. These plant-based cellulose acetate sheets come from one of Italy's top luxury manufacturers and are cut into smaller rectangles.

• Temple bars are pressed using specialized machinery.

• A look at the vast stock of lenses.

• An explanation of how our two-tone pressed acetate is created for styles like our Icone. This process is quite time-consuming and tedious, but oh so worth it!

• Look closely to see how the shape is pressed out of the larger acetate sheet.

• All frames are placed into these rotating wooden barrels for smoothing and polishing. The process starts with coarser pellets and, through several stages in different vats, gradually moves to finer and finer textures. The frames tumble for days until they are perfectly smooth.

• Wires are inserted so the temples can be shaped.

• More buffing and polishing.

Voilà!!

A laser engraves the logo and style details onto the temple bars.

Not everything is high-tech! Frames are ready for their final bath.

German hinges are applied by hand. The machine can do this too, but this skilled artisan tells us she is quicker and actually more precise when tightening them into exactly the right position.

All 44 steps in the making of each of our luxury sunglasses take place under this one roof.

Shop Sunglasses here.