What is Oliver Peoples?

Oliver Peoples is a Los Angeles eyewear house, founded in 1987, known for understated frames that carry no visible logo. We stock the collection at Siegmund Eye Care in Myrtle Beach, which means you can put a pair on your face and see what it does rather than guess from a photograph.

Where Oliver Peoples came from

The first Oliver Peoples boutique opened on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood in 1987, and the design studio is still in West Hollywood today. That matters more than it sounds. The look the brand became known for, thin profiles, warm tortoise, almost no branding, was a deliberate turn away from what the rest of the eyewear industry was doing at the time, and it came out of a particular corner of Los Angeles rather than out of a European fashion house.

A heritage brand, in the brand’s own words

Oliver Peoples supplies the following account of its own history to the opticians who carry the collection. It is worth reading in full, because it explains the thinking behind the frames better than a product description would.

A heritage brand born in the heart of West Hollywood, on Sunset Boulevard, Oliver Peoples was founded in 1987 with the opening of its first boutique. The unique culture of Los Angeles, elements of fashion, film, art, music, continues to inspire the product and vibe of the brand. From the beginning, Oliver Peoples had a passion for superior product, a distinctive culture rooted in California, and an obsession with service. These core values have remained at the heart of the brand and endure today. Through an authentic and consistent voice, Oliver Peoples has never relied on a logo but instead on fostering relationships with like-minded consumers who appreciate and respect our approach.

The first Oliver Peoples designs were inspired by an estate collection of vintage American-made eyewear purchased by the founders of the brand in the late 1980s. The sophisticated aesthetic created by the heritage brand was a departure from the futuristic styles and geometric shapes in bright, brazen colors dominant in the late 80s. In contrast, the first Oliver Peoples collections were classic, timeless styles in an array of natural tortoise shell hues with discreet branding and subtle details. By defining a new intellectual category, the direction of eyewear changed globally. This vintage aesthetic that inspired the first collections remains at the heart of the brand.

Each Oliver Peoples frame is hand crafted with careful attention to detail, sculpting and perfecting the materials to achieve a balanced and refined final product. The technically intricate process involves both state of the art machinery and the human touch, such as the individual hand-insertion of the genuine pins and plaques. Each frame is tumbled and polished, and finally hand adjusted, carefully referring back to the original drawing created in the design studio in West Hollywood.

What that means when you try a pair on

Two things tend to decide whether someone leaves wearing Oliver Peoples. The first is weight. The frames are built thin, and anyone who has worn heavier acetate for a few years usually notices the difference within a minute of putting them on. The second is the missing logo. If you like eyewear that announces itself, this is the wrong collection. If you would rather people noticed the glasses and not the brand on the temple, it is usually the right one. The frames take prescription lenses, progressives included, and our opticians can talk you through how frame materials and shapes actually differ before you commit to anything.

Try a pair on in Myrtle Beach

Oliver Peoples sits alongside over 700 other designer frames at our optical boutique in Carolina Forest, and our licensed opticians will help you narrow it down rather than leave you standing at the wall. Our lens lab is in house, so most single vision lenses are ready the same day. Call (843) 796-1155 or request an appointment and we will set aside time for a proper fitting.