This is Frannie she lives with her three beautiful sons, husband and their puppy. She was born in New Jersey but moved to West Hollywood whilst a baby. Frannie's family moved back to England in 1994, but still have strong links to the States, which is where the ‘Hollywood Vintage’ name came from.
Frannie has always been very creative and loved fashion, especially vintage. Over time she amassed a huge collection of glasses, jewellery, wigs and haberdashery that she wanted to put to good use. Her love of upcycling clothes, furniture, and accessories, and then lockdown gave her the opportunity and time to be more experimental with sunglasses.
Taking something that is pre-loved and making it bespoke is so fun and prevents even more unnecessary landfill waste.
"Keeping 'Hollywood Vintage Glasses' ethical, and my creations unique, were priorities. The damage that cheap, fast, disposal fashion is doing to the environment is horrible. It is important to fight it as much as possible and educate people how destructive shopping in this way is.
Steering people towards quality, not quantity, and ethical brands is vital to improve the fashion world. Also, post lockdown, people want to treat themselves, and having a unique, environmentally friendly, and awesome pair of sunglasses is great for that".
Frannie says finding and recycling broken, old costume jewellery is so much fun. Finding special pieces and giving them a new lease of life as sunglasses is incredibly rewarding. She largely sources embellishments and frames from charity shops, eBay, auctions and donations. She now also offers customers the option to have their prescription lens glasses decorated. The glasses are shipped in recycled packaging.
Frannie predominantly use hot glue on the glasses as it is solvent free and biodegradable. The glue needs so be strong, and hot glue is a greener option as it doesn’t require non-recyclable plastic packaging such as glue sticks and tubes. She explains that she doesn't want to use harsh, solvent based glues as they are not biodegradable or recyclable. She even keep dried pieces of hot glue and re melts them to use in certain moulds, then use the pieces in new glasses creations.
"I feel so fortunate that I have been able to create a business that recycles, upcycles, and encourages conscious consumerism. Hopefully I can educate people and help them change for the better, whilst wearing fabulous sunglasses".
Check out Frannie's fabulous range at Hollywood Vintage Glasses store here.
