Inspiration can come from the strangest places but I never thought it would lurk in the cover of a book my son was reading. Most times he’s tasking away on his iPod or Fender Stratocaster or aping the Anglo-morons (who we BOTH mimic and adore) on TV’s “Top Gear” BBC broadcast. But the cover of his new favorite Artemis Fowl graphic novel by Eoin Colfer and illustrated by Giovanni Rigano certainly caught my eye. If those specs on the cover anticipate the direction of men’s eyewear for my son Gram’s generation, we are set for an amazing future in men’s eyewear. I wonder if those side shields might not store a chip or two of info far more stylishly than the creepy eye-formation glasses we’ve seen thus far?   

Hurricane Sandy tried to sink our men’s eyewear plans big time last year. Our aspirations to shoot specs on some great New York-based artists seemed doomed but less than a week after harbor surges sank one of our locations at the Brooklyn Navy Yard under 20 feet of flood waters, 20/20  hit some streets and studios with a band of artists ready to see the their city in a new light with some terrific new specs. Here, renowned illustrator Robert Passantino strikes confidence in his Spy Optic style Reeds. Yes. HIS. He loved them so much Spy gifted them to him.   —JJS