Glemaud X Tura is an eyewear collection made especially for Black women’s faces

I push my glasses up every few minutes. Unless I’m annoyed. Then I let them sit perched atop the tip of my nose and glare over them.

I thought all eyeglass wearers adjusted their specs constantly.

That was until I tried on a pair of Glemaud X Tura frames at Rittenhouse Square optical boutique Eye Encounters. Glemaud X Tura is a collaboration between Haitian American women’s wear designer Victor Glemaud and eyewear brand Tura focusing on glasses that fit Black women.

Many Black women have no idea our eyeglasses don’t fit properly. Turns out eyeglasses, like Band-Aids, ballet shoes, and swim caps, are another centuries-old item that hasn’t taken the needs of people of color into consideration.

“I was just as shocked as you were,” said Glemaud, the New York-based designer whose women’s wear collection boasts delightful stripes, prints, and polka dots. “The same way trousers fit and shoes fit, eyewear must fit. My goal is to make it joyous, fun, and beautiful.”

The Glemaud X Tura collection is replete with animal prints, jewel tones, sparkle, and glitz that complement brown skin tones. The beauty in these specs, however, is in the fit. I tried on a pair of gold sparkle frames trimmed in a daring fire engine red. They stayed put over my nose for the entire time I gazed at my reflection. I tilted my head a few times to check my cell phone and they didn’t move. Longer temples hugged my ears and the oversize frames sat high on my cheeks so I barely felt them. Gone was the urge to wear my glasses as a headband instead of on my face.

This is what it feels like to wear glasses that fit.

Glemaud X Tura launched its first collection last summer; its second collection hit stores in late January. The frames are available at the four Philadelphia-area Eye Encounters, Tus Ojos on Lehigh Avenue, Nordstrom.com, and Farfetch. Frames range in price from $250 to $300.

“They are selling well,” said William Nigro, owner of Eye Encounters as he polished Glemaud X Tura lenses for me to try on. “There have been brands that have spoken to Black women when it comes to style: bold prints, bright colors. But Tura has really managed to master the fit.”

Tura, an 85-year-old eyewear brand based in New York with a distribution center in Muncy, Pa., has licensing agreements with dozens of fashion brands like Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B., Ted Baker, and Superdry. Tura is known for its diverse-fit range that includes petite frames for people with small faces who want more sophisticated styles and extra large for broader faces. Tura’s Universal Fit is for glasses wearers with low nasal bridges, a common feature of African Americans, Latinos, and Asians. These glasses feature deeper nose pads to prevent glasses from slipping down.

Glemaud X Tura’s selection of 32 sunglass and optical frames adds a few extras to its Universal Fit, said Jennifer Coppel, Tura’s vice president of brand management. This Forever Fit includes a wider nasal flare that eliminates sinus pressure and gapping at the bridge. Mid-set temples lift the glasses so they don’t rest on Black women’s high cheekbones — think Angela Bassett. The placement of the temples also centers the eye in the frame.

“This is so important because it allows women to see out of their lenses properly,” Coppel said. “And the frame won’t slip down your face all day.”

Hallelujah!

Tura invited six women of color for an extensive fit study. Black women of African, Caribbean, and Latina descent are the target audience, but Coppel said, women of other ethnicities need this fit, too, because European faces are not the norm. There was a real dearth in the market, Coppel said, so Tura jumped on it.

Once Tura nailed the fit they turned to Media-based Karen Giberson, director of New York’s Accessories Council, for ideas on who to collaborate with and she suggested Glemaud. Giberson liked Glemaud’s cheery aesthetic, that he was coming off a successful Target collaboration, and was beginning work on his HSN fashion launch.

Glemaud said he wants to bring joy to Tura’s glasses, describing his contribution as, “a little summer vacation in the darkness of winter.” He says he’s obsessed with bamboo trim, beaded decor, and a particular turquoise cat-eye frame, but his No. 1 priority is inclusivity. “The right glasses impact your quality of life,” Glemaud said. “Why is it that whole populations can’t enjoy this basic quality of life issue?”

In a perfect world he’d design a Glemaud X Tura collection for men. Then maybe he would be able to wear the turquoise specs he’s obsessed with.

It would be nice, he said, if he had a pair of glasses that fit him perfectly, too.