Design for Eyes

Words: Pattie Pegler

Images: Supplied

Hollie Reedy is the founder and designer of NZ based Age Eyewear. She established the business more than a decade ago and now runs it from her office at home. She lives in Auckland with her partner and 8-month old son and juggles life, motherhood and great eyewear design.

 I have worked for myself since I was 18. When I was at university, in Auckland, I started my own vintage business. I was studying marketing and international business because I thought that’s what I needed to get a job later on but I was also running this market stall three days a week, so I would go on big road trips and buy pieces that would work for my stall.

When I moved to London, after graduating, I carried on my vintage business and opened a shop in Camden. I moved to different premises – but I was always really confident in what I was doing with the vintage stuff. It was the external things that were the challenges – rents and premises and things like that.

I first started designing eyewear when I was in London. I came across this little eyewear manufacturing business and they were doing all these classic standard look frames. I started helping them and making suggestions with ideas and concepts, with a vintage twist. 

I loved London and the people. But about 12 years ago, my brother had just had a baby and I just felt like I wanted to come home. When I got back I wanted to carry on working for myself. I came home with a bit of money from my business in London and I decided I wanted to get into eyewear design – so I did my research and got started.

I love designing and being creative is my favourite part of my work. Not all glasses are created equal – a beautifully designed frame can make all the difference. I would normally start with a pen and paper and just start sketching – getting the shape together and the sizes. I am about to release my 12th collection and each year is different although I have a few styles that do really well and just keep running, the same for certain colours like black and tortoiseshell. This year I have developed a range of kids’ sunglasses too.

Age has been around for 12 years so a lot of our stockists have been with us for the long term. We are lucky that we have good existing stockists and we don’t need to constantly look for new ones.

When I am not designing glasses my other passion is renovating. My partner and I bought a house during Covid, it was being renovated and was probably about seven eighths done. We are finishing it off and I have a great home office too. I am quite minimalist in my approach, I don’t like lots of stuff but I like pops of colour and plants. 

Just under a year ago I had my son and being a mum has changed me. I don’t sweat the small stuff as much. I guess I’ve learnt to minimize issues and deal with them differently – I’ve learnt that I can ask for help and that’s okay. I have a very supportive partner and my mum is just amazing – she helps a lot.

But my son is 8-months old and I do struggle with the work/life balance thing. I absolutely love being a mum and I want to spend as much time as possible with him but I have worked for myself forever and letting go of it after so long can be difficult. I love being a mum and I love my work. So the key is ensuring I create a good balance between the two.