Jacques Marie Mage - Wolves, Obnoxious Acetate and The American Dream

[Mr Jay]

Of course there must be a reason if JMM has chosen to have its main production in Japan. It's also a consolidated opinion that that land is the best source for high quality eyewear,

What I want to say is that their frames made in Italy couldn't be so far away from their normal standards. And obviously there is a reason for such a choice.

By the way, did you buy the Dealan Fatigue?

Yes, they should be arriving on Monday

 

[Mr Jay]

Its more about the acetate manufacturers. Japan, Italy and china are the biggest 3. Never heard of france. Japan produces the best quality.

I have a couple LV frames which are “hand made in france” the quality is garbage. Acetate shrink and shrivel in heat when you try to adjust the fit. Probably chinese acetate just assembled in france.

I agree about the acetate. My point was about the manufacturing process, the know-how of making glasses. Japanese artisans are unsurpassed.

LV frames would probably be garbage regardless of where they're made because LVMH has to make 1000000000% profits on them

 

[troika]

I don't know.. Italians do a lot of things masterfully but as for glasses imo:

Made in Japan = Rolls Royce
Made in France = Ferrari
Made in Italy = BMW

Personally if I were JMM I wouldn't bother with MII except for leather cases which are indeed nice

If I wanted the BMW of sunglasses I'd get BMW sunglasses

 

[Pakman161]

Perhaps it is just me, and I hope that raising my concern here brings more thoughtful discussion instead of criticism. I kind of dislike how JMM has now become this flavor of the month feeling with all these releases/collabs that have happened this year. One month, cash is the big thing. Next month, it was an Alanui collab + a few summer color releases. All very much anecdotal, but just feels like i keep getting bombarded with emails every two weeks on the next hot drop. I'm sure Jerome wants to expand his empire and not just be a small shop, and maybe he's trying to make this big enough to sell to some bigger corporation down the line as his retirement strategy. It feels like the anticipation of each release gets more lackluster with a recycling of older frame combinations. I wonder if he'll get any feedback on this over time and decide to change up his business strategy. I start to feel like his original mission statement of the brand is getting disconnected from the actuality of what's going on right now.

Edit: Don't get me wrong, still love some of the stuff being put out.

 

[kjb]

just picked up a pair of the Vendomes in Dark Havana. I saw a couple of members swapped out the lenses in their Camel colored version. Has anyone swapped out the yellow lenses in their dark havanas? I’ve never been a fan of the yellow and looking for some ideas.

i swapped out the yellow lenses on my dark havana felini's. i went polarized lenses in brown and am very happy with the overall look.

 

[CPAJay1221]

i swapped out the yellow lenses on my dark havana felini's. i went polarized lenses in brown and am very happy with the overall look.

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They look great! I actually did the same with my Fellinis awhile back. I sold them when I trimmed down my collection a bit. I think you inspired me back then. Thinking about doing the same this round. I’m going to take them into a shop nearby to see what other options they have. The shop I took the others to only had 4-5 options. All pretty classic.

 

[MickeyPunch]

I have 3 pairs of JMM (in Christmas 2022 I had none) and I’m going to swap the lenses in all 3 because I don’t love them.

Dealan argyle: thinking of a light brown, don’t like the pinkish/purplish lenses.

Plaza beluga: I kinda like the reddish stock ones but they are too dark, darker in person than in the pics. Will prob go with a light yellow.

Fellini noir: also too dark; usually prefer warmer colours but those usually go better with gold hardware and these have silver one so going to put some photocromic (is that what you guys here call transitions? sorry not a native speaker and don’t know the glasses jargon) black lenses.

Sounds reasonable?

 

[Mr Jay]

If I wanted the BMW of sunglasses I'd get BMW sunglasses

LOL I hope those are fake

 

[Thin White Duke]

So here’s my story sozz if you’ve heard this one before!

I lean towards the more conventional size and shake JMMs. Had a Jones for the Jeffs and tried them on. They fit me well but I wanted something more exciting than black or tort, and prefer the exposed wiring to be more creative than the horizontal lines.

Enter the Ashcroft which seems similar in size and shape, exposed engraved wiring but not impressed with ochre or volvox.

Then someone tipped me off to charcoal Ashcrofts which I don’t think have even appeared on the JMM website yet. They just arrived. There was some discussion over whether they had purple or grey lenses. They have what looks to me like grey gradient but there’s a hint of purple flash on the inside.

They hit the spot for me in that they are similar to Jeff - perhaps slightly more angular or put another way a less tall Fellini. The engraving is bright chrome so nicely noticeable. I quite like the grey gradient lenses but it’s all a bit monochrome. Considering replacing with purple flash. The other downside is that grey frames might make all my silver metal frames redundant!

Also I’ve been trying to keep a small tight rotation. Same as when I got a few nice watches, after you get a collection you start to have favourites and as you can only wear one pair at a time that’s a lot of dough to be sitting gathering dust in a drawer. Finally as I frequent toy work from home and just grab my wayfarers to do the school run and walk the dog, even though I live in FL where it’s sunny all year round im onky wearing my JMMs when I’m suited and booted on a job site a couple of days a week or out with the wife and bairn on a weekend.

TL/DR here are some pics …

For comparison charcoal julien

Fellini…

Moscot Hyman in emerald …

Oliver Peoples Jaye in Burgundy bark …

Ashcroft on top, Fellini below …

 

[DorianGreen]

So here’s my story sozz if you’ve heard this one before!

I lean towards the more conventional size and shake JMMs. Had a Jones for the Jeffs and tried them on. They fit me well but I wanted something more exciting than black or tort, and prefer the exposed wiring to be more creative than the horizontal lines.

Enter the Ashcroft which seems similar in size and shape, exposed engraved wiring but not impressed with ochre or volvox.

Then someone tipped me off to charcoal Ashcrofts which I don’t think have even appeared on the JMM website yet. They just arrived. There was some discussion over whether they had purple or grey lenses. They have what looks to me like grey gradient but there’s a hint of purple flash on the inside.

They hit the spot for me in that they are similar to Jeff - perhaps slightly more angular or put another way a less tall Fellini. The engraving is bright chrome so nicely noticeable. I quite like the grey gradient lenses but it’s all a bit monochrome. Considering replacing with purple flash. The other downside is that grey frames might make all my silver metal frames redundant!

Also I’ve been trying to keep a small tight rotation. Same as when I got a few nice watches, after you get a collection you start to have favourites and as you can only wear one pair at a time that’s a lot of dough to be sitting gathering dust in a drawer. Finally as I frequent toy work from home and just grab my wayfarers to do the school run and walk the dog, even though I live in FL where it’s sunny all year round im onky wearing my JMMs when I’m suited and booted on a job site a couple of days a week or out with the wife and bairn on a weekend.

TL/DR here are some pics …

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For comparison charcoal julien

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Fellini…

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Moscot Hyman in emerald …
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Oliver Peoples Jaye in Burgundy bark …


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Ashcroft on top, Fellini below …

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The Ashcroft looks good on you. It's the new Prime colourway, sort of gloss Charcoal.

 

[blue2007]

Which one is larger in size? The Enzo or the Cash? I can't tell from the photos

 

[RavenBespoke]

Took a chance on love and snagged Cody in Agar. I’ve got a noggin worthy of its own zip code, and this was the first frame I’ve tried that was actually oversized for me. Unsure if I’ll end up keeping or returning, but they certainly are lookers all by themselves.

 

[dmash]

Most people look absolutely ridiculous with the Cody on. You actually pull it off. Your head must be deceivingly large as those really don’t look that big on you, haha!

 

[RavenBespoke]

Deceptively large is probably the best descriptor lol. Hats and eyewear seem to shrink magically on contact. But I’m glad it’s working in my favor for now!

 

[troika]

Took a chance on love and snagged Cody in Agar. I’ve got a noggin worthy of its own zip code, and this was the first frame I’ve tried that was actually oversized for me. Unsure if I’ll end up keeping or returning, but they certainly are lookers all by themselves.

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Finally a fellow big dome haver!

I haven't tried the Cody yet, and I think I need to, as even the Belize feels normal.