For Summer’s Sunniest Shades, the Choice Is Clear
Sunglasses from Dom Vetro come with real mineral glass and are handmade in Los Angeles.
The quartz Primo sunglasses from Dom Vetro.
Photographer: Stephen Lewis for Bloomberg Businessweek. Prop stylist: Sonia Rensch.
Sunglasses, despite the name, are rarely made with glass anymore: The majority of lenses today are a polycarbonate blend of plastic. But at Dom Vetro, founded by former investment banker Ashley Bézamat, they are fashioned from mineral glass. After leaving his day job, the Paris-born, Stanford-educated entrepreneur used his dual U.S.-EU citizenship to begin apprenticing with artisans in the Italian Alps who still make their shades by hand.
In 2012, Bézamat started Dom Vetro in the Veneto region; five years later, he moved the company to Culver City, Calif., bringing the machines and materials from Italy. Dom Vetro can make a custom pair perfectly sized for your face, but for instant gratification, try the $295 quartz Primo sunglasses, which are part of the brand’s first collection to be fully made in the U.S.