SEE Eyewear

SEE Eyewear was founded in Chicago in 2000 with the premise that the eyewear market had become dominated by a small number of companies that controlled the licensing relationships between the major fashion brands and frame production, producing a landscape where the frames labeled with fifty different fashion house names were often manufactured in the same factories and differed mainly in the label on the temple. The SEE alternative was to develop its own designs rather than licensing them from fashion brands, which gives the frames in the Wisconsin Avenue store at 1261 a different point of origin from the brand-name optical selection that the major optical retailers carry.

The own-design model means the SEE customer is shopping for the frame itself rather than for the brand name associated with it. The silhouettes, materials, and construction of the frames are the product; the absence of a major fashion label on the temple is the distinctive signal that the wearer values design over brand recognition. For the Georgetown customer who has noticed that a significant portion of the eyewear market is built on licensed names applied to conventionally manufactured frames, the SEE model offers a different relationship with the product.

The frame range at SEE covers the full optical need: single-vision, progressive, and reading prescription formats alongside the sun lens selection. The shapes range from the round and vintage-influenced profiles that have been consistent sellers in the independent optical market to the more contemporary geometric frames that the brand produces each season. Materials include acetate in the classic palette alongside metal options in the lighter weight constructions that daily wear requires.

The optical staff at the Wisconsin Avenue store handles the prescription fitting and lens selection that the eyewear purchase requires. Lens options include high-index materials for stronger prescriptions, anti-reflective coatings, and the progressive designs that multifocal wearers need across the range of frames the store carries.

The Wisconsin Avenue location at 1261 is on the boutique corridor between Vineyard Vines and Malbon, accessible from the Georgetown Circulator stop and from the surrounding blocks of upper Georgetown. Hours run from 10am Monday through Saturday and noon Sunday. The SEE design philosophy produces a catalog organized around the frame’s visual weight and the face shape it flatters. The staff are trained to assess face proportions and recommend frame shapes accordingly, which means the in-store visit is guided rather than an unstructured browse through an undifferentiated selection. For customers who have struggled to find frames that suit their face shape in conventional optical retail, the SEE approach of fitting the frame to the face rather than expecting the customer to identify the right shape independently produces better outcomes. The own-design model also means that the same frame is not available at a hundred other retailers, which removes the comparison shopping dynamic that chain optical retail often produces. The Wisconsin Avenue store at 1261 is open from 10am Monday through Saturday and noon Sunday. Online browsing is available at seeeyewear.com.