Digger: Hello Darren. How are you?
Darren:
I’m well thanks.
Digger:
Can you tell us a little of the background to Dead Men's
Spex?
Darren:
I came from the industry. I am a trained optician by trade
and had worked at opticians for twenty years. I moved to the
country and didn’t want to manage opticians again. Been
there done that, and I collected vintage spectacles myself.
Through that I found out there was a market for them.
That’s why we put all our energy into it.
Digger:
The best way to start a business – to have a passion and
an interest in what you’re doing. So do you still have a
collection?
Darren:
I’ve still got a collection which dates from the early
1800s through to about the 1950s. I don’t collect as many
as I used to though because a lot come in and people say “Ooh, I
like that.” And they end up buying them.
Digger:
What are the most popular styles?
Darren:
We aim a lot at the 1950s so, for ladies, it’s little
cat’s eyes in whatever colours we can get. The brighter
and the jazzier the better.
Digger:
The Oh Boy!-type specs?
Darren:
Probably just a little bit earlier than that. By then
they were starting to get a bit larger and squarer in that
late fifties early sixties stage. A lot of the people we do
business with want the more extreme pointy cat’s eyes from
the earlier fifties. And gents frames are coming absolutely
very much back into fashion – if you watch Heroes - the
character on that wears that combination frame as was worn
in the J.F.K. movie. They’re all made by a company
called Shuron and we bring them into the country because
they don’t actually have a distributor over here. And we
supply a lot of those to gents.
Digger:
What does The Internet mean to your business?
Darren:
Without The Internet we wouldn’t really have a business.
Digger:
I wonder how it’s going to evolve over the next ten years?
It’s difficult to try and second-guess it.
Darren:
I think it will just become more and more embedded into
everyday life.
Digger:
We’ll end up with just one box in the room…
Darren:
That does everything, yes. It gives you a worldwide market
and niche sales just wouldn’t exist without The Internet .
There isn’t enough in a city to keep me going as a
supplier of vintage glasses.
Digger:
Not even if it was London or Birmingham?
Darren:
No, we need the Net because we send all over the place –
Australia, Japan. Vietnam’s quite a large market too these
days. It’s odd and it’s for one style only there.
Digger:
What do you enjoy most about running Dead Men's Spex?
Darren:
Freedom to do what I want to do. Having spent so many years
managing opticians for other people it’s nice to be able
to say “That’s the way I want to go with this.” And be
able to follow it through.
Digger:
Is it a big team, small team?
Darren:
It’s just me and my wife.
Digger:
Often the best businesses are like that.
Darren:
You’re all singing from the same hymn sheet aren’t you?
It’s up to you to make sure everything you do works right
and everything is efficient.
Digger:
Why does retro continue to be so popular in your view?
Darren:
There’s always that harking back with people. Forties and
fifties are just far enough away now to be cool and trendy
again. We’re sort of getting there slowly with the
seventies and eighties.
Digger:
Another good thing is that when one’s out another comes
in.
Darren:
Yes.
Photo by Fleure de Guerre www.diaryofavintagegirl.com/
Digger:
But also isn’t there an amalgam of styles these days so
that every previous style is cool – all sorts of things
happening and blending at the same time?
Darren:
Yes, very much that way. I think people have also realised
that with all fashions there’s only so many things you can
do with a pair of trousers! It has two legs, they’re
either long, short or midway. And often vintage frames were
handmade, so that you get quality that you don’t get with
mass-production.
Digger:
And hopefully enough people recognise that?
Darren:
Yes.
Digger:
What are the biggest challenges when trying to source
vintage material?
Darren:
The same as with any vintage items these days. They’re
becoming harder and harder to get. It’s a limited stock
out there. Often you’ll get a frame and you’ll never see
it again. When it’s here, it’s here, when it’s gone,
it’s gone.
Digger:
Hopefully you can charge a premium for that?
Darren:
Yes.
Digger:
Is there not an element that people are increasingly aware
that these things are worth money and they find them in
nooks and crannies and attics where they would have
languished before?
Darren:
The days of dropping on a box of frames and spending a fiver
on them have gone. Particularly with the programmes on the
telly.
Digger:
I’ve had a couple of phone calls from a lady who thinks
she has a Michael Jackson hat which she got in a car boot
sale. But although there was one on the Antiques Roadshow, because it had provenance
it was worth £25,000. This
lady’s hat only has the name Michael Jackson in gold and
the maker’s label. So we’re trying to prove the
connection but it’s frustrating.
Darren:
I saw that hat on the show.
Digger:
I am worried that there’s a factory in China churning
these out now!
Darren:
With eyewear there are vintage-style spectacles out there
and people come up and say “I bought this on the Internet
and it’s the same as yours.” And I say “Well, it
isn’t and you probably paid a fiver for them because
they’re mass-produced in China.”
Digger:
Some people don’t seem to know the difference between an
authentic item that obviously costs a lot more and a
reproduction, and they don’t appreciate the quality. Say
for a vintage poster worth £1,500 compared to a reprint
for £20.
Darren:
I think it all comes down to how interested they are in it.
Would they ever have been the sort of people that would have
paid a premium for the genuine article anyway? Whether they
just want a touch of the look, and there’s nothing wrong
with that. As long as they’re aware.
Digger:
It won’t bear close scrutiny, particularly by those in the
know.
Darren:
That's right.
Photo by Fleure de Guerre www.diaryofavintagegirl.com/
Digger: Where is the Dead Men's Spex business going in the
future?
Darren:
Hopefully to our own retail shop.
Digger:
You’re going back to a premises? Where would that be?
Darren:
It would be up here in north Norfolk.
Digger:
Where are you from originally?
Darren:
I’m a Brummie born and bred from Great Barr but we’ve
been here for five years. Another thirty years and I’ll
have gone out of the probationary period
to live here.
Digger:
There’s no sign of a Norfolk accent yet Darren. Why a
retail premises?
Darren:
I think as with most vintage clothing items and accessories,
the problem you’ve got is…
Digger:
Touch and feel?
Darren:
Yes, and people want to be able to come and try things on.
Digger:
Would they come from several counties away to try them out?
Darren:
I would hope so to the area we live in. Holt itself has got a
good reputation.
Digger:
Good roads?
Darren:
No, absolutely awful as they are to anywhere in Norfolk! We
need a good motorway slammed into it.
Digger:
It took us ages to get to north Norfolk from Northampton.
Darren:
It takes me about four and a half hours to get back to
Birmingham. It’s only 160 miles but you don’t hit a dual
carriageway until you get to Nottingham.
Digger:
But that’s still your dream to have a retail?
Darren:
We think so, if not our own then in with somebody else. I
don’t know whether I’d like to go stand in a shop again
six days a week. But a premises of some sort.
Digger:
By appointment only.
Darren:
Where people can go and have a look at frames. It’s either
that or a Shepherd’s Hut. A wheeled Shepherd’s Hut out
at the front where we can set it up with all the frames.
Digger:
Or a ‘mobile’ where you could go around the country?
Darren:
We already do that by attending a lot of shows.
Digger:
Still keeping in with the contacts?
Darren:
We like to get out and meet people. A lot of people who have
bought spectacles now we would class as friends.
Digger:
That’s great.
Darren:
It can be a lonely life in the workshop on your own. It’s
nice to get out from time to time.
Digger:
Yes. Is there an element of repairs as well?
Darren:
We do repairs and we also put lenses into frames. We have
our own workshop for that. If you buy a vintage frame from
us you can actually have a frame put in, which a lot of
opticians won’t do. They won’t touch a vintage frame.
They’re worried that they’ll break them. Whereas we
assure people that anyone who buys a frame from us they can
have new lenses put into them.
Digger:
Darren it’s been great talking to you and finding out
about the vintage spectacles business. I’m so pleased
it’s going well for you.
Darren:
Thanks David. Have a good afternoon. Bye.
Photo by Tony Nylons www.tonynylons.co.uk
