Fast fashion trends inspire our new eyewear range

We’ve recently added a new, exclusive brand to the Asda eyewear collection with lots of bold, on-trend and vintage-inspired designs.

There are a total of 18 new frames in this range – all offering something new for our customers.

If I had to sum up the range in two words it would be fast fashion. We see that customers want access to really on-trend, stylish items – high fashion without the price tag because they might want to change their look frequently.

This range is a real step towards the younger customer for us – so it’s great to see the media taking note of that, with The Sun saying “you’ll be surprised how trendy they are”.

There’s lots of really bold styles in the range. One of the frames is a round metal retro style (see the photo below), which is so fashionable right now. After attending the key optical trend and style exhibitions we know that in 2018 you'll see people wearing this style as well as really bold colours and shapes. We also have an on trend clear perpsex frame, as seen on the celebrities. Eyewear is becoming a way of expressing yourself.

There are also more vintage styles in the range too – the double bridges where you’ve got the normal bridge across your nose then another bar across the top. We’re recognising that customers want to have the absolute forefront of fashion and then maybe change their style in six to 12 months. That’s our challenge to make sure we refresh this range regularly so there’s always something new.

Younger customers are generally on a budget but they’re the ones that have the most interest in the look of the eyewear, making sure it’s up-to-date and that it suits their style. For them to know that for £80 (the same price as a good Winter coat or pair of boots!) they can come and get a pair of glasses, no matter what their prescription, is really reassuring that they can use their eyewear as part of their outfit without compromising because of cost.

Having exclusivity on OWN gives us greater ownership of the creativity, as we can design our frames from scratch. This means we can ensure there are styles for every customer.

Because of our all-inclusive pricing we’re delivering great quality at an affordable price. If our customers want to change their eyewear within six months to a year we make that really accessible so that customers don’t feel they’re stuck with the same glasses for a few years.

Finding the right glasses is incredibly personal, so we want to do everything we can to help our customers make the right choice. It’s why we use this face shape guide that shows what suits different face shapes.

Because it’s such a personal decision we wanted to give a real breadth of choice, with different shapes and styles. Anything from skin tone to hair colours influence what works for you. Some people want glasses that don’t draw too much attention, while others deliberately want something that stands out. That’s the style choice they want to make, so we don’t like to be too prescriptive.

We like customers to have a feel and try the glasses on; we give them advice and support from a colleague in store but let them lead that process themselves. Everyone knows what they’re looking for and what they feel suits them and our colleagues are there to provide advice and guidance if somebody doesn’t know where to start.

We recommend coming in for an eye test at least every two years – and the story about our optician at Asda Hyde spotting a potentiallly life-threatening brain condition during an eye test showed how important that is.

Wear and tear on glasses means that if you’re wearing them regularly we recommend you get a new pair after two years, even if your prescription hasn’t changed. There may be scratches that affect the coating, so it’s worth thinking about your visit as a health check on your glasses too. Even if your prescription hasn’t changed it may be more comfortable if you have a newer pair. It’s not all about updating your look it’s about if your glasses are functional and comfortable for you to wear as well.