City of Angels Eyewear
It’s another blistering sunny fall day in LA and the Santa Ana’s are blowing and wreaking havoc across the dry Southland. Today is definitely a sunglasses day, most days here are, and as luck would have it Benjamin Montoya, my friend and eyewear maestro wants me to checkout his new line.
We roll down to his shop, but first take a slight detour through the Beverly/Melrose neighborhoods in his black BMW M-5. It’s his car of the moment and it is fast! Ben’s originally from Arizona but has lived in Hollywood forever. He’s had other eyewear stores and created other eyewear lines. But just around the corner is his newest creation, City of Angels located at the corner of Melrose and Fairfax (technically Hayworth).
Together with the guys from Dita Eyewear (Jeff Solorio & John Juniper), the three partners have put together a sick collection of eye-wear at the cross-section of LA’s favorite new shopping district. The store is filled with frames like vintage Ray Ban, and Cazals, and everything current like Dita Eyewear or Salt’s hot new collection.
Ben is a collector at heart and as proof a vintage Masi bike sits in the window looking like something that Lance Armstrong’s predecessors might race. As long as I’ve known Ben he’s been putting frames on all the famous faces in Los Angeles and NYC. You may not recognize his name, but all the stylist in town do, they even come to his house just to get the best of his amazing collection. The store has only been open a few months and already they have attracted an amazing cache of clients. Last month Beckham even stopped by for some shades to help him hide from paparazzi.
City of Angels is special not just because of all the eye-wear history and knowledge that Ben, Jeff (Dita Eyewear), and John (Dita Eyewear) bring to the project, but the fact that these guys are fiercely independent. Surprisingly most of the biggest names in the eye-wear business in Los Angeles have been slowly bought out by the big boys, making it hard to find a pair of glasses that not everyone and their mother owns. Not to mention their personal collection of eye-wear is insane. Ben spent many nights trading frames and hanging out with Dennis Roberts, the guy that designed all of Elvis and Elton John’s most famous shades.
I got to try on the new line and it is very cool. They are definitely a smart look, like something out of the east coast prep schools, maybe Choate or Dwight circa 1988. He tells me to complete the look, “put your collar up and maybe sport a pair of Sperry topsiders.”
“Looking good Billy Ray” “Feeling good Louis.”
If you are looking for the coolest glasses to compliment your outfit and ride or if you just like to try on some killer vintage frames and dream, this place is amazing. The neighborhood also just added a delicious panini and cappuccino place called Froma on Melrose that can make the trip worth while.
Ben wants you to make sure you eat your hot gruyere sandwich after you checked out his frames. No greasy fingers, please.
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