Kathy Tran was frustrated by a lack
of choice for stylish, comfortable
eyewear that fit well with her higher
cheekbones and smaller nose bridge.
It’s a challenge faced by many people
of Asian descent when shopping for
a new pair of glasses, the Torontobased designer said.
“Those with petite nose bridges and
other Asian facial features typically
face common issues of having eyewear rub against their cheeks and
slide down their nose,” she said.
has proven popular and there are
plans to build on the current portfolio
of frames.
The current collection features oversized sunglasses, which the company
described as reinvented classics that
inspire a sense of nostalgia.
The iconic look frames come in
a range of styles and colours from
black to caramel, vanilla to rustic
red and metal to dark olive. Lenses
most ethnically diverse countries on
the globe. The East Asian population
in Canada increased by about 60
per cent from the 1996 to the 2011
Canadian census.
About 1.6 million people of East
Asian descent now reside in the
Canada, according to Statistics
Canada, along with 1.5 million
south Asians and almost a million
southeast Asians.
So, while completing her Master’s
degree in business administration,
Tran decided to do something about
the problem and design a line of
eyewear with options outside of the
“traditional European fit.” That led
to the launch in 2012 of KayTran
Eyewear.
“Over the last decade, there’s been
a proliferation of options for more
customized fits in jeans, suiting,
petite clothing et cetera, and I truly
believed the same needed to happen
in eyewear,” she said.
The company now features a collection of 20 sunglasses, which were
each designed in Canada and handmade in Italy. The structure of the
glasses has been modified, she said,
to address the common issues
encountered by many Asian clients
through what the company calls its
L.B.T. (Lens, Bridge, Temple) Fit.
“The lens curvature is reduced so
that the frames don’t hit the top of
the cheeks. The bridge has been
narrowed and the nose pads have
been elevated to prevent the sunglasses from sliding down the nose,”
she said.
“Lastly, the temple angles have been
widened to again prevent rubbing
against cheekbones.”
Tran said the company’s eyewear,
are tinted with a brown or grey hue.
Tran said there is potential for her
company to expand into designing,
manufacturing and selling optical
frames for the Asian market as well.
Companies that sell Asian fit eyewear say demand for their products
is strong and most report plans to
grow the number of frames
available for sale.
There are companies in North
America that specialize in eyewear
for Asian customers, along with
global manufacturers that carry
Asian fit options.
If Canadian demographic trends
are any indication, it’s a market
with tremendous potential for continued growth. Canada is one of the
Visible minorities now make up
about 20 per cent of the Canadian
population. Stats Can says the
diversity of Canada’s population is
expected to continue to increase
significantly over the next two
decades.
Like KayTran, American-based
TC Charton also exclusively designs
and sells eyewear for the Asian
market. The company was started
in 2009 by Asian-American Alexandra Peng Charton, who, like Kathy
Tran, knew first-hand of the
struggles to find distinctive,
attractive eyewear to fit her facial
characteristics.
“She saw that many other Asians
experienced the same issue and
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