I only recently met Tom Broughton, founder of the UK-based Cubitts, and we’ve quickly become friends. I’m a big fan of people who are unrelenting in their artistic vision, even more so when they aren’t pretentious or fussy about it. Tom is a guy you want to have a pint with, and in fact the week we met, we had several. He’s quirky and a bit eccentric, traits one would expect of a man obsessed with spectacles.
Off the record, we talked many things, many of which I doubled back over on the record, which made for a more cohesive and reactive conversation, one I hope you all will enjoy as much as I did conducting it. Tom and I discussed Cubitts, making glasses versus eyewear and the distinction between the two, the key to growing a business, retail lessons, the virtues and similarities of London and New York, personal style, tips for buying glasses, and plenty more.
Fit One
Jacket by Albam, trousers and vest by Universal Works, T-shirt by Folk, sneakers by Flower Mountain, and glasses (throughout) by Cubitts.
What were you doing before Cubitts, and what was your journey like to starting the brand?
My original background is in applied mathematics, so I did a degree in econometrics and then did lots of different jobs, trying to see if I could find anything that stuck. Cubitts was almost like a hobby on the side. Glasses were a hobby for me. And then I thought, Well, maybe the hobby can survive for its own right.
For the uninitiated, can you tell us about Cubitts and what sets it apart from other eyewear companies?
We’re a spectacles company. That’s an important distinction. We’re not an eyewear company. I always tell the team this: “We’re a spectacles company that do sunglasses, not an eyewear company.”
What’s the distinction?
I love glasses rather than eyewear…
What’s eyewear?
It’s this weird catch-all term, but it’s fashion. There’s something very particular about spectacles and vision. It’s very precise, very specific, very tailored. When I first started wearing glasses, all the people that I thought were really cool all wore glasses. At the very beginning when we first launched, all we did was spectacles. It wasn’t until the first summer or second summer when people started saying, “Well, could I put dark lenses in here?” Kind of by accident, we became a company with sunglasses, but our origins are in spectacles, and so we’re very much focused on offering a really beautiful, tailored experience around choosing a pair of spectacles.
Fit Two
Jacket and trousers by Muji and shirt by Tombolo.
What role does style play in spectacles?
I don’t think there’s a thing you could put onto yourself that has a bigger impact on how other people perceive you than a pair of spectacles. Genuinely. Obviously there’s evolutionary reasons why we look at each other in our faces. So the facts are in the middle of your face, but it says so much about how you identify with the world. It always struck me as odd at how you’d meet people that were so impeccably dressed, they’d wear a Savile Row tailored suit, they’d wear Crockett and Jones shoes, and then they would wear injection-molded $10 ready-readers. It made absolutely no sense. I like to think that spectacles are an objective style that allow you to be the person you want to choose to be.
Do you build an outfit in relation to your glasses then?
I always start with my glasses and work backwards. They’re obviously the first thing that I put on in the morning or the last thing I take off at night.
Fit Three
Shirt by YMC and trousers by Universal Works.
What were your first glasses?
The first pair of proper glasses I bought was when I was 20, a pair of Cutler and Gross 692s. I saved up and saved up. I still remember the feeling of putting them on. They were so sturdy. They were like tanks and they were heavy, almost uncomfortable. But I didn’t care, because I thought they were the fucking coolest things I’d ever seen. Obviously, then you can see as well. They’re an odd, amazing object.
How have you developed your style over time?
My style has broadened. I was almost very militant for a long time. I felt I was part of a tribe, and I felt that your sartorial choices were a signifier of the tribe you were in. For a long time, I used to wear little badges and buttons.
Do you not think they are anymore?
They are, but I think as you get older, they’re less deep and wider. There’s a period in my 20s where I just wouldn’t wear color. As I’ve gotten older and more comfortable in the kind of fits that I like, it allows me to explore more with color and texture and the interrelation between things that I’m wearing. I think you just get older, you get more confident, don’t you? I think your confidence when you are young comes from being as a tribe. When you leave that tribe, you then have to form your own confidence. That allows you to be more considered and measured in your sartorial choices.
Fit Four
Jacket by YMC, vintage shirt, trousers by Universal Works, and shoes by Sabah.
Any tips for readers looking to inject personality into their glasses?
The biggest thing is to get stuff that fits you. The problem with glasses is that we do a really bad job of explaining sizing. People don’t understand the size of their head. They have no idea. I’m convinced that everybody in the world thinks their head is either massive or tiny. The consequence, you see people with terribly fitting glasses all the time, and whatever the style or material or color or quality, if it doesn’t fit you correctly, it won’t look right.
Are there any rules?
What you essentially want is one fit around the nose. You’re trying to distribute the bridge around your nose. Ideally, what you want is a pair of spectacles to be wider than your temple, but not wider than your head. Sunglasses are quite different. You can go much bigger, as people like to do. In terms of choosing the shape, there aren’t really rules as such. The only one that I guess I would subscribe to is to offset the geometry of your face. So if you’ve got a very round face, go for something square. If you’ve got a very square, angular, blocky face, then go for something rounder because it will soften that. It’s all about drawing attention. If you’ve got a receding hairline and you don’t want to draw attention to it, then don’t do something that has a higher brow. Have something with a heavier bridge, because it draws your eye line away from the top of your head to the middle of your head. So, there are rules. Fit’s the single most important thing.
Fit Five
Vintage jacket, shirt by Muji, and trousers by Wawwa.
If you had to wear one outfit for the rest of your life, what would it consist of?
I’d wear some sort of utilitarian suit. A jacket and a pair of trousers, very loose fit, maybe a heavier canvas cotton, something that isn’t too structured. We want loads of pockets. Pockets on the inside. The jacket would have deep pockets. On the outside it would have concealed pockets. What I like about that is you can garden in it, you can walk and have like a meeting in it, you can go to a funeral in it. It keeps you warm, or you can take the jacket off. It gives you the ultimate amount of versatility, flexibility. Under it would be a shirt, not a T-shirt. It would be a long sleeve—with the ability to roll the sleeves up. If it gets hot, it’s made of a more breathable cotton. On my feet, I’d go for a sneaker, but nothing too branded. Glasses would be titanium frame clip-ons, so I could turn them into sunglasses. Titanium ones are indestructible, they don’t lose their shape, don’t have to get them adjusted.
