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November 2025

Luxottica dominates the world of eyewear - the conglomerate make frames under licence for hundreds of big-name brands including Prada, Versace and Chanel. They bought Ray-Ban in 1999 and Oakley in 2007.

Luxottica has long been considered the enemy of independent eyewear, by retail opticians like myself, as well as smaller, independent frame brands.

They bought (and subsequently ruined) Oliver Peoples and Persol, which were our two best-selling brands between 2001 and 2010. I don't stock either brand anymore. They swallow up independent brands, lower standards and make everything grey and miserable.

They merged with Essilor, the French lens giant, in 2017, and now own 18,000 chainstores including David Clulow, Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters and Vision Express, all selling the same generic shapes and models. 

The conglomerate had an annual turnover of over €26.5  billion in 2024. 

Essilor charge independents like myself something like three times what they'd charge their own opticians for their lenses. Luckily for me there are alternatives.

Pioneers in mass production, they result in sunglasses and prescription glasses assembled with average-to-poor quality raw materials, with a flimsy feel that fit poorly. Many of their products, most notably the higher end licenced brands such as Chanel and Tiffany don't warrant their inflated prices as the material quality and construction standards are so poor. 

Their mass-market products are everywhere - in Lux-owned sunglass concessions in Selfridges and Harrods to Duty Free in every airport in the world and uninspired out-of-town opticians who have no idea. Their lack of design originality, unawareness of the term restricted-availability, shady made-in-Italy labelling and bully-boy tactics all contribute to me crowning them the Optical Overlord.

They parade their ugly, garish labels on their sides for sheep people who think that displaying a brand label on their sunglasses is cool.

There's no soul to this company. Any passion for eyewear or eyecare would be wasted with them. Not a fan.