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Dead Men's Spex

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

www.deadmensspex.com

www.deadmensspex.com

 

Dead Men's Spex is a place on the Net offering a selection of vintage glasses and retro spectacles from the 1850s to the 1970s - become anything from the Class Nerd to a 1950's Glamour Puss. "One pair is never enough". Find your vintage glasses, spectacles or retro glasses at Dead Men's Spex, whether you need vintage prescription glasses or vintage sunglasses!  Beautiful vintage frames to go with whatever period reenactment or style you are into.

Digger talked to Darren Manion about his business.

 

www.deadmensspex.com

Photo by Tony Nylons www.tonynylons.co.uk




Digger: Hello Darren. How are you? 

Darren: I’m well thanks. 

Digger: Can you tell us a little of the background to Dead Men's Spex? 

Darren: I came from the industry. I am a trained optician by trade and had worked at opticians for twenty years. I moved to the country and didn’t want to manage opticians again. Been there done that, and I collected vintage spectacles myself. Through that I found out there was a market for them. That’s why we put all our energy into it. 

Digger: The best way to start a business – to have a passion and an interest in what you’re doing. So do you still have a collection? 

Darren: I’ve still got a collection which dates from the early 1800s through to about the 1950s. I don’t collect as many as I used to though because a lot come in and people say “Ooh, I like that.” And they end up buying them. 

Digger: What are the most popular styles? 

Darren: We aim a lot at the 1950s so, for ladies, it’s little cat’s eyes in whatever colours we can get. The brighter and the jazzier the better. 

Digger: The Oh Boy!-type specs?

Darren: Probably just a little bit earlier than that. By then they were starting to get a bit larger and squarer in that late fifties early sixties stage. A lot of the people we do business with want the more extreme pointy cat’s eyes from the earlier fifties. And gents frames are coming absolutely very much back into fashion – if you watch Heroes - the character on that wears that combination frame as was worn in the J.F.K. movie. They’re all made by a company called Shuron and we bring them into the country because they don’t actually have a distributor over here. And we supply a lot of those to gents. 

Digger: What does The Internet mean to your business? 

Darren: Without The Internet we wouldn’t really have a business. 

Digger: I wonder how it’s going to evolve over the next ten years? It’s difficult to try and second-guess it. 

Darren: I think it will just become more and more embedded into everyday life. 

Digger: We’ll end up with just one box in the room… 

Darren: That does everything, yes. It gives you a worldwide market and niche sales just wouldn’t exist without The Internet . There isn’t enough in a city to keep me going as a supplier of vintage glasses. 

Digger: Not even if it was London or Birmingham?

Darren: No, we need the Net because we send all over the place – Australia, Japan. Vietnam’s quite a large market too these days. It’s odd and it’s for one style only there. 

Digger: What do you enjoy most about running Dead Men's Spex?

Darren: Freedom to do what I want to do. Having spent so many years managing opticians for other people it’s nice to be able to say “That’s the way I want to go with this.” And be able to follow it through. 

Digger: Is it a big team, small team? 

Darren: It’s just me and my wife. 

Digger: Often the best businesses are like that. 

Darren: You’re all singing from the same hymn sheet aren’t you? It’s up to you to make sure everything you do works right and everything is efficient. 

Digger: Why does retro continue to be so popular in your view? 

Darren: There’s always that harking back with people. Forties and fifties are just far enough away now to be cool and trendy again. We’re sort of getting there slowly with the seventies and eighties. 

Digger: Another good thing is that when one’s out another comes in. 

Darren: Yes. 

 

www.deadmensspex.com

Photo by Fleure de Guerre www.diaryofavintagegirl.com/




Digger: But also isn’t there an amalgam of styles these days so that every previous style is cool – all sorts of things happening and blending at the same time? 

Darren: Yes, very much that way. I think people have also realised that with all fashions there’s only so many things you can do with a pair of trousers! It has two legs, they’re either long, short or midway. And often vintage frames were handmade, so that you get quality that you don’t get with mass-production. 

Digger: And hopefully enough people recognise that? 

Darren: Yes. 

Digger: What are the biggest challenges when trying to source vintage material? 

Darren: The same as with any vintage items these days. They’re becoming harder and harder to get. It’s a limited stock out there. Often you’ll get a frame and you’ll never see it again. When it’s here, it’s here, when it’s gone, it’s gone. 

Digger: Hopefully you can charge a premium for that? 

Darren: Yes. 

Digger: Is there not an element that people are increasingly aware that these things are worth money and they find them in nooks and crannies and attics where they would have languished before? 

Darren: The days of dropping on a box of frames and spending a fiver on them have gone. Particularly with the programmes on the telly. 

Digger: I’ve had a couple of phone calls from a lady who thinks she has a Michael Jackson hat which she got in a car boot sale. But although there was one on the Antiques Roadshow, because it had provenance it was worth £25,000. This lady’s hat only has the name Michael Jackson in gold and the maker’s label. So we’re trying to prove the connection but it’s frustrating. 

Darren: I saw that hat on the show. 

Digger: I am worried that there’s a factory in China churning these out now!

Darren: With eyewear there are vintage-style spectacles out there and people come up and say “I bought this on the Internet and it’s the same as yours.” And I say “Well, it isn’t and you probably paid a fiver for them because they’re mass-produced in China.” 

Digger: Some people don’t seem to know the difference between an authentic item that obviously costs a lot more and a reproduction, and they don’t appreciate the quality. Say for a vintage poster worth £1,500 compared to a reprint for £20. 

Darren: I think it all comes down to how interested they are in it. Would they ever have been the sort of people that would have paid a premium for the genuine article anyway? Whether they just want a touch of the look, and there’s nothing wrong with that. As long as they’re aware. 

Digger: It won’t bear close scrutiny, particularly by those in the know. 

Darren: That's right. 

 

www.deadmensspex.com

Photo by Fleure de Guerre www.diaryofavintagegirl.com/




Digger: Where is the Dead Men's Spex business going in the future? 

Darren: Hopefully to our own retail shop. 

Digger: You’re going back to a premises? Where would that be? 

Darren: It would be up here in north Norfolk. 

Digger: Where are you from originally? 

Darren: I’m a Brummie born and bred from Great Barr but we’ve been here for five years. Another thirty years and I’ll have gone out of the probationary period  to live here. 

Digger: There’s no sign of a Norfolk accent yet Darren. Why a retail premises?

Darren: I think as with most vintage clothing items and accessories, the problem you’ve got is… 

Digger: Touch and feel? 

Darren: Yes, and people want to be able to come and try things on. 

Digger: Would they come from several counties away to try them out? 

Darren: I would hope so to the area we live in. Holt itself has got a good reputation. 

Digger: Good roads? 

Darren: No, absolutely awful as they are to anywhere in Norfolk! We need a good motorway slammed into it. 

Digger: It took us ages to get to north Norfolk from Northampton. 

Darren: It takes me about four and a half hours to get back to Birmingham. It’s only 160 miles but you don’t hit a dual carriageway until you get to Nottingham. 

Digger: But that’s still your dream to have a retail? 

Darren: We think so, if not our own then in with somebody else. I don’t know whether I’d like to go stand in a shop again six days a week. But a premises of some sort. 

Digger: By appointment only. 

Darren: Where people can go and have a look at frames. It’s either that or a Shepherd’s Hut. A wheeled Shepherd’s Hut out at the front where we can set it up with all the frames. 

Digger: Or a ‘mobile’ where you could go around the country? 

Darren: We already do that by attending a lot of shows. 

Digger: Still keeping in with the contacts? 

Darren: We like to get out and meet people. A lot of people who have bought spectacles now we would class as friends. 

Digger: That’s great. 

Darren: It can be a lonely life in the workshop on your own. It’s nice to get out from time to time. 

Digger: Yes. Is there an element of repairs as well? 

Darren: We do repairs and we also put lenses into frames. We have our own workshop for that. If you buy a vintage frame from us you can actually have a frame put in, which a lot of opticians won’t do. They won’t touch a vintage frame. They’re worried that they’ll break them. Whereas we assure people that anyone who buys a frame from us they can have new lenses put into them. 

Digger: Darren it’s been great talking to you and finding out about the vintage spectacles business. I’m so pleased it’s going well for you.

Darren: Thanks David. Have a good afternoon. Bye. 

 

 

www.deadmensspex.com

Photo by Tony Nylons www.tonynylons.co.uk

 

 

www.deadmensspex.com

www.deadmensspex.com

 

Darren Manion
Phone +44 797 177 8095

 

 

 

 


 

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