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

[RavenBespoke]

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.

We are out here, though few and far between! If you can find a pair for retail or reasonably for secondhand, I’d recommend it. It’s a surprisingly balanced profile on large faces like ours!

 

[Facultyofzen]

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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Ashcroft and Fellini look best on you, and just from looking at the Julien, I would absolutely drop some purple lenses into the former.

 

[Thin White Duke]

Ashcroft and Fellini look best on you, and just from looking at the Julien, I would absolutely drop some purple lenses into the former.

Thanks for the tip.
I’m off tomorrow and plan to go down to Tampa to see the only dealer within hours of me and see what he has in stock to try on. On the way there is Fuse lenses so I’ll probably stop in there and see how their purple flash looks. I discovered this place when I was searching for a way to customise my wayfarers (beach glasses 😀) and was about to buy some replacement lenses off eBay when I found that their location was in Clearwater not far from me. Decent quality with polarised options and I think the last time I did this it was about $45 so check them out if you need replacement lenses.

 

[DorianGreen]

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

Certainly the Cash, alone by the bare measurements it's evident, even more in fit pictures.

 

[DorianGreen]

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.

I understand your feeling, not dissimilar to mine. As long as I like to see new models and have a broader choice, it's going all too fast by now, a new hype replaces the latest one every two weeks. I was waiting for the Nakahira and for new colourways of the Fellini and now they have dropped almost simultaneously. I was considering Ashcroft and Jeff, but it feels over already. Challenger and Sartet are (were) also interesting. But you cannot miss the Johnny Cash line of course. And then these extremely limited releases, like Dealan and Devaux in Fatigue. Being a collector, I feel a little overwhelmed, I certainly would like to have some more time.

And yes, from a niche brand JMM has developed into a major player with cult status. Hopefully expansion and profit won't betray the original spirit of offering an exclusive and exceptional product.

 

[Pakman161]

Thanks for sharing my sentiment @DorianGreen. Definitely feels like I don't have time to mull things over as well when they do these surprise releases. On some occasions they do offer some glimpses of upcoming releases with pre-orders. I was looking at the Octavian last night, and it felt like it was just missing some finishing details that could have made this a home run across the board. However, that may just be my perception of what it is missing to make me want them. For example, I wish the height of this was a bit smaller. At 48 lens height, seems just a little disproportionate. Then I also notice that it has no bridge detail that could add a little more oomph. Something similar to what the Evans/Felson/Savoy may have had. This feels just a little rushed with no finishing attention to detail.

 

[DorianGreen]

Thanks for sharing my sentiment @DorianGreen. Definitely feels like I don't have time to mull things over as well when they do these surprise releases. On some occasions they do offer some glimpses of upcoming releases with pre-orders. I was looking at the Octavian last night, and it felt like it was just missing some finishing details that could have made this a home run across the board. However, that may just be my perception of what it is missing to make me want them. For example, I wish the height of this was a bit smaller. At 48 lens height, seems just a little disproportionate. Then I also notice that it has no bridge detail that could add a little more oomph. Something similar to what the Evans/Felson/Savoy may have had. This feels just a little rushed with no finishing attention to detail.

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I agree about your analysis. Somehow resembling a diving mask.

 

[Pakman161]

I agree about your analysis. Somehow resembling a diving mask.

Yep, for an emperor no less.

 

[Mulamoes]

Glad the LF Dayton came with a tool to undo the embellishments so I can remove the tarnish from the silver

 

[JDelage]

Found a pair of Nokona on a Facebook group. I've been looking for a Clubmaster-inspired pair for a while.

 

[Mulamoes]

Before and after of removing the tarnish of the silver. Don’t know how the retailer stored this pair of sunglasses but it wasn’t good!

 

[dmash]

Before and after of removing the tarnish of the silver. Don’t know how the retailer stored this pair of sunglasses but it wasn’t good!

I had a pair of Dakota like that and sent them back. Nice to see it can be fixed!

Did you use simple jewelry cleaning wipes/liquid or had to submerge them in some type of concoction?

 

[Mulamoes]

I had a pair of Dakota like that and sent them back. Nice to see it can be fixed!

Did you use simple jewelry cleaning wipes/liquid or had to submerge them in some type of concoction?

Took them apart using the included screwdriver and started to submerge every part in a bowl with with aluminum foil and some baking soda. Couldn’t find any silver wipes but chemistry will get the job done!

If there was multiple Dayton available, I would’ve returned it.

 

[Thin White Duke]

Took them apart using the included screwdriver and started to submerge every part in a bowl with with aluminum foil and some baking soda. Couldn’t find any silver wipes but chemistry will get the job done!

If there was multiple Dayton available, I would’ve returned it.

They’re made from real silver. Unless you keep them in a sealed vacuum box they’re gonna oxidise, so either embrace the tarnish or keep that baking soda on hand.

(Or get one of those silver polishing cloths from a jeweler to brighten them up from time to time!)

 

[threeleggeddog]

Before and after of removing the tarnish of the silver. Don’t know how the retailer stored this pair of sunglasses but it wasn’t good!

I'm weird and actually think the tarnishing is cool but I can see why this is annoying