Odd task... Need some advice.
MrZareba
Krakow, PolandPosts: 1,775MI6 Agent
I recently found in my house a vintage pair of Chanel sunglasses, probably from the early nineties. They don't have a case, the lenses are pretty battered, the frame however is in great shape so I went to the nearest optician to ask how much would I have to pay for a pair of new lenses. Since these had mirror lenses (almost completely scratched off but it's still visible) he said the price might be around 300$, which left me with my jaw on the floor. I looked on several website that are selling vintage sunglasses and Chanel seem to go for around 200-300$ so buying new lenses for them is completely without sense.
However maybe the price he suggested is to high, some of you guys know a lot about certain things so I was wondering if anyone might be able to suggest something here. Here are some pictures of the glasses themselves:
However maybe the price he suggested is to high, some of you guys know a lot about certain things so I was wondering if anyone might be able to suggest something here. Here are some pictures of the glasses themselves:
Comments
Hm... That's not exactly what I'm after
On the other side, some companies don't want anyone making lenses for their frames but them i.e. Oakley. I wanted a pair of Oakley prescription sunglasses and when my Eye Doctor told me the cost, my jaw hit the floor. It was over $300 and that was with my $165 credit for the frames and usually "base" lenses are covered.
Well I want to sell them in a vintage sunglasses shop afterwards so I'm afraid prescription lenses are not an option... Consider it something a la classic car restoration. The most interesting part will be finding the original box/case!
They were definitely speaking about normal lenses, non-prescription. They told me mirror-lenses are way more expensive and also these lenses which are needed for them are called base-lenses (no idea what that is) and that is also a factor that justifies the price. I was definitely in a place which has a good reputation among opticians, they're selling Tom Ford, Porsche Design, Persol, Chanel, you name it - so I knew they know their stuff, unlike some of the smaller opticians that are selling for example Solano sunglasses - sometimes they just have no idea about the premium sunglasses world.
Did a little searching around on what base lens could mean. I stumbled upon the link below, scroll down just a bit to the base curve section. Not sure if this works for both prescription and non-prescription, but may give an idea what the optician meant by base lenses.
http://www.opticampus.com/cecourse.php?url=lens_design/
I'm not sure what else to suggest. I'm not even sure where you could find an original case. Good luck and hopefully something works out for you.
The CE sign would indicate that these are max. 15 years old and I am not even sure if the CE sign is reqired on sunglasses frames.
So, first step would be to contact a Chanel dealer and check out his sunglasses if any of them bears the CE sign (in my opinion, the CE sign is mostly used by chinese fakers to make their fakes credible).
If the dealer is not able to help you, contact your national Chanel headquarter - if there is none in Poland, try Chanel in Hamburg.
Shoot some better pics and ask for their opinion.
I am 99,5% sure that the frame is a fake.
If it's the real deal, I have doubts that you have the jackpot here. The frame has been worn and I don't know if putting new lenses will really make that investment worth in terms of market value.
Contact some vintage sunglass dealers (google that) and ask, if these are genuine and how they are worth
a. with perfect genuine lenses
b. like it is
c. how much genuine lenses will cost if available at all.
My optical shop in HK does not charge extra for the mirror coating on sunglass lenses - but these won't be from Chanel which you mention in your car analogy.
Uncorrected lenses for sunglasses there are around US$ 60,--
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
They can't be max 15 years old... Firstly because I remember them being worn by my mother in the 90' (I was around 10 so I really remember that), secondly: all the other vintage Chanels have exactly the same signs - for instance here: http://vintageye.com/post/7810783576/chanel, and last - CE can't be something chinese fake makers are only doing since both my original Persols from CR have it and my Porsche Design sunglasses, which I won directly from the company itself, also have it
As for contacting Chanel I contacted them already via their email customer service, they are not allowed to tell anything regarding the authenticity of products.
Not sure since when it became mandatory for sunglasses but for now the authenticity of your sunglasses is still in doubt (I remember that you had that problem before).
Trying to faithfully restore this with genuine components (genuine lenses, box etc) to reach a potential US$ 300 price (which is also not sure) does not make much sense in my opinion - unless you are really emotionally attached to the item and intend to keep those for that reason.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Well the authenticity of my Persol 2720s is not in doubt anymore since I had a few genuine pairs of 2720s in my hand by now from Fielmann, so I took the liberty and compared mine (a few years before an optician confirmed their authenticity anyway but that sealed it for good). I'm not sure exactly what you're implying with the CE sign - even the worst knock offs should have it because applying texts to sunglasses is probably the easiest part of recreating them. So in my honest opinion only an, ekhm, very unintelligent knock off maker would miss that little thing.
As for these, it's very unlikely that they are fake. The logos on the sides are made from metal with a great attention to detail, the other thing is that I've never seen a pair of fake sunglasses stating "made in Italy" but that's pretty thin - just like the CE sign, any text can be applied to them, even "yo momma"
no matter how you turn it, you would'nt want to put money in restoring a fake.
So the first line of action should be to make sure if they are genuine or not
Everything else is just a waste of time and money.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
But since Chanel doesn't want to examine their authenticity I'm afraid it's a dead end
Maybe it will be necessary to send them over to them, but that's the best line of action.
You don't want to invest in fake sunglasses and i am pretty sure that even if authentic all that effort will be worth it.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Similar style for US$ 249.--
Now take off the cost of lenses, box, ebay seller fee, PayPal fees and you end up with a value of your frame if it's authentic.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
That's what I did yesterday, still waiting for an answer...
Us$ 199
If you check for chanel 4155 sunglasses you get a very different design shown by respected sources - with the exception of the ebay advert above.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
HOLY CRAP how did you even find these, did you go trough every single listing on eBay? O.o Anyway, thank you so much - now I have a good shot of how the lenses looked like. And it seems that the mirror is coming off on the ebay pair also!