Vintage Eyewear for Film, TV and Costume Styling
Looking for distinctive vintage eyewear for film, television or costume styling?
Ed & Sarna works with stylists, costume designers, wardrobe departments and creative teams to source genuine vintage glasses and sunglasses for screen, editorial and production use. Our archive includes thousands of unworn vintage frames from sought-after designer and independent makers, with a particular strength in pieces from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
Whether you are dressing a lead character, building out background costume, sourcing a hero frame for a specific scene, or looking for eyewear with a precise period feel, we can help you find pieces with the right shape, mood and authenticity.
We have supported a number of productions over the years, including work connected to Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, the widely loved Jilly Cooper adaptation Rivals, and other film and television projects.
Vintage Eyewear for Stylists and Costume Designers
For screen work, eyewear is rarely incidental.
A frame can help define character, establish period, sharpen silhouette, or quietly signal social world, taste or attitude. The right pair does more than complete a look. It brings clarity to it.
That is where vintage eyewear is especially valuable. Original pieces often carry the proportions, materials and details that are difficult to recreate convincingly. Whether you need understated optical frames, bold character sunglasses, refined metal shapes or highly specific period references, genuine vintage eyewear offers a level of texture and credibility that modern reproductions often miss.
Why Work with Ed & Sarna
Genuine vintage, not generic retro
Our collection is built around authentic unworn vintage frames rather than imitation retro styles. That means stronger design language, better detailing, and a more convincing result on screen.
Strong period coverage
We hold a broad range of frames spanning multiple decades, with particular depth across the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. This makes it easier to source eyewear with a clear sense of era, whether the requirement is subtle or highly character-led.
Designer and statement pieces
Our archive includes vintage designer eyewear as well as lesser-seen independent labels, allowing stylists to source both recognisable names and one-off discoveries.
Character, mood and specificity
We can help identify frames that feel right for a particular role, setting or visual reference point, whether that means polished, severe, eccentric, glamorous, intellectual, understated or period-accurate.
Flexible production support
We understand that production timelines can move quickly and sourcing needs can shift. We are happy to discuss one-off requests, multiple-frame pulls, broader project requirements and ongoing collaboration with costume and styling teams.
Eyewear for Period Productions, Character Styling and Editorial
We regularly hear from creatives looking for:
- vintage eyewear for film and television
- glasses for costume designers
- period-correct sunglasses
- designer vintage eyewear for stylists
- character glasses for actors
- vintage frames for editorial shoots
- hero eyewear for screen productions
Our collection is particularly well suited to productions where eyewear needs to feel believable, distinctive and visually resolved. That may mean a single frame that defines a character, or a wider selection to support multiple roles across a production.
What We Can Help With
We can support with:
- sourcing frames for film and television productions
- identifying styles by era, mood or character type
- supplying vintage optical frames and sunglasses
- assisting wardrobe and costume departments with shortlists
- providing imagery and model references where useful
- working with stylists on editorial, campaign and promotional shoots
If you are looking for a particular silhouette, decade, brand, lens shape or tone, we can help narrow the selection.
Recent and Past Production Work
Our frames have been sourced for a range of creative projects, including productions associated with The Gentlemen, Rivals, and other film, TV and editorial work.
For stylists and costume teams, what matters most is usually not volume but accuracy: finding the pair that feels entirely right for the world being built. That is the part we enjoy most.
Vintage Frames with Presence On Screen
Some accessories disappear into costume. Eyewear rarely does.
Because it sits at the centre of the face, a frame can shape how a character is read almost instantly. It can suggest confidence, intellect, glamour, severity, eccentricity, nostalgia or restraint before a word is spoken. For that reason, the best screen eyewear tends to be chosen carefully.
Our role is to help you find frames that do exactly that: pieces with presence, authenticity and the right visual tone for the production.
Get in Touch
If you are a stylist, costume designer, wardrobe assistant, prop buyer or part of a film or television production team, we would be glad to help.
Get in touch with a brief, moodboard, reference image or outline of what you are looking for, and we can suggest suitable vintage eyewear from our collection.