Riviera magazine, January 2005
The Dish: Fashion

FRAME OF MIND From oversized Dior to classic James Dean, this San Clemente designer has an eye for style. "How many pairs of shoes do you have?" asks vintage eyewear maven Allyn Scura. "It's ridiculous to think you only need one pair of glasses; it's the first thing people see." It is this belief that has made the eyewear dealer and designer a pioneer in the industry. Allyn Scura's San Clemente warehouse is home to more than 60,000 pairs of antique and vintage-inspired frames, ranging from turn-of-the-century wire spectacles to oversize 1970s styles a la Jackie Onassis. Catering to men, women and even retro-loving kids, Scura is the go-to gal for authentic and unworn glasses, all of which can be fit with prescription or sunglass lenses. Eighty to ninety percent of their inventory is vintage, but Scura designs a few pairs of frames each year, and she recently launched the Legend frame, a classic style that hasn't been available for decades. The frame was first popularized by James Dean and has resurfaced thanks to actors like Johnny Depp. Hollywood has also taken note of Scura. Her frames have appeared in films like JFK and Reckless Youth and on celebs like Elton John and Courteney Cox Arquette.

The Newport Beach native took classes at Orange Coast College before moving to Manhattan to study at the prestigious Parsons School of Design. It was in New York that Scura discovered modern design pioneers like Mies van der Rohe, Florence Knoll and Eero Saarinen, who would later influence her work and aesthetic. A successful career in commercial interior design had Scura making six figures by the time she was 23. "I eventually had homes in New York, Laguna Beach and Telluride," she says. "It was crazy." While antique shopping in North Carolina in 1988, Scura stumbled upon some antique frames from the 1920s and decided to install sunglass lenses for her own personal use. "People on the street were stopping me asking where I had gotten them," she explains. "An optician told me if he had more of them he could sell them in a minute." Realizing the potential for this untapped market she quickly bought a batch of 5,000 frames from a New Jersey optical dealer and was in business. Within three months she was in the black.

A decade later in 1998, Scura was selling her eyewear at a Chelsea flea market when Scott Iseyama became a customer and lifelong fan. "When she told me she had over 60,000 frames I had to propose," jokes Iseyama, who worked in advertising account management prior to working full-time with Scura. The couple moved the business to California in 2000, and their home-office is full of modernist furnishings and two daughters. Much of their business is done online and by special request and they're likely to have whatever look you're trying to channel, be it Ben Franklin or Buddy Holly. Locally, Fetneh Blake in Laguna Beach sells some of Scura's designer fashion frames (think oversized Dior and Diane von Furstenberg from the 1970s). "I'm just constantly amazed," marvels Scura standing amid boxes of fresh inventory. "I could wear a different pair each day."

© 2005 Modern Luxury Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.