l.a.Eyeworks: The Independent Brand Built by Opticians

Two licensed opticians. One spray booth on Melrose Avenue. A hand-drawn sketch sent to a French frame maker. That is how l.a Eyeworks began, on 9th September 1979. More than four decades on, it remains one of the most distinctive independent eyewear brands in the world — and it sells exclusively through independent opticians.

Barbara McReynolds and Gai Gherardi grew up together in Huntington Beach, California, and trained as opticians before opening their first store. They were not formally trained in design. What they had instead was an obsession with glasses as objects, and a conviction that eyewear did not have to be boring, medicinal, or apologetic.

Gherardi recalled that when they opened, glasses were still widely considered "such a prosthesis." There was, she said, "a lot of inhibition to wear them." Within months of opening, the pair had submitted their first sketch to a French eyewear maker — a classic unisex acetate frame they named The Beat. It became the foundation of everything that followed.

What l.a Eyeworks actually is.

Every frame begins as a hand-drawn sketch. Limited editions only. Manufactured in Europe and Asia — Italy and Japan — combining advanced production technology with hand-finishing. Bold shapes, expressive colour, and an approach to materials that has been rethought and reinvented frame by frame since 1979.

The frames are not trend pieces. They do not follow a season. They are closer to product design than fashion, which is why I. An Eyeworks design has been exhibited at the London Design Museum, the London Craft Council, the London College of Fashion, and the Chicago Athenaeum. In 1992, the brand received the International Design Magazine Gold Award for product design. In 1991, Stanford University's Design Conference recognised l.a Eyeworks under the industrial design category — a first for any eyewear brand.

Since 1981, photographer Greg Gorman has shot the brand's portrait campaign. The tagline — "A face is like a work of art. It deserves a great frame" — has not changed. It does not need to.

An end of an era. And a legacy that continues.

In 2025, the eyewear world lost both of the brand's founders. Gai Gherardi died on 16th March 2025, aged 78. Barbara McReynolds followed shortly after, also aged 78. They had been friends since high school. They built something together that outlasted every trend, every consolidation wave, and every corporate takeover attempt in the sector. They never sold.

l.a Eyeworks continues under CEO Robert Rich, who has described the founders' legacy as having "infinite flexibility and a knack for zeroing in on timeless concepts." A new flagship on Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood was in development at the time of the founders' deaths — a sign that the brand is moving forward, not standing still.

Why it belongs in an independent practice.

l.a Eyeworks distributes exclusively to independent opticians. That is not a marketing phrase. It is policy. The brand has never sought the multiples. It was built by opticians who understood that the independents are where the real dispensing conversation happens — the one that takes time, asks questions, and arrives at a frame that is genuinely right for the person wearing it.

Stocking l.a Eyeworks means stocking something a patient cannot find at a chain. The limited-edition production runs ensure that. The design approach ensures that. And the brand's forty-five-year history of being unapologetically itself — bold, California-originated, optician-led — is the kind of story that makes a frame wall worth looking at.

For wholesale enquiries, visit laeyeworks.com.