Our History

Kirk and Kirk creates distinctive and lightweight eyewear for you to express who you really are. Crafted from bespoke Italian acrylic and handmade in France. Just Frames. No Labels.

Our Beginning

Optics is in Jason Kirk’s blood.

His Grandfather, Sidney, and Great Uncle Percy, started Kirk Brothers in 1919 when they converted a dilapidated sewing machine into a lens cutter. A century later, Jason and Karen Kirk remain passionate and inspired by a hundred years of Kirk optical history, innovating and exploring the infinite possibilities of eyewear. From their London base, Sidney and Percy blazed an optical trail around the world, opening factories in Indianapolis, Montreal and Johannesburg, all the while bringing a unique sense of style and excitement to optics.

In London they were the first to deliver their lenses by motorbike courier, a thoroughly modern affair.

“Things that seem normal to us today were visionary in the 1920s. Kirk Brothers were the first to deliver glasses to opticians by motorbike courier to offer a better, faster service, for example.”

- Founder, Karen Kirk

Sidney Kirk was the inventor and craftsmen.

As a boy, exploring his Grandfather’s home in London, Jason would stumble across a beautiful set of hand-carved dominoes that Sidney had made, or even discover that he was eating dinner on a walnut table, designed and crafted by Grandpa Sid.

Percy was the marketeer, creating advertising images and slogans for the whole optical profession to use and promote their message. Books of marketing and promotional tools were made available to opticians and they shared their skills magnanimously in the hope of benefitting the profession.

The brothers were close. They married two sisters, Miriam and Sarah, bought houses next door to each other and even bought the same car with consecutive number plates.

It was no surprise that the next generation also went into optics including Jason’s father, Neville. They were inventors, pioneers, constantly looking to drive optics forward. In their London offices they sold frames and lenses on the ground floor and crafted them, from start to finish, on the upper levels.

The ‘Facifit’ bridge was the first adjustable nose pad.

It transformed the comfort of wearing glasses. They also invented the Motex safety glass that Sir Malcolm Campbell wore in his goggles for the world water speed record.

His telegram to the brothers read simply, “Achieved record today. Goggles excellent.”

In the 1920’s and 30’s Kirk Brothers built an international business based on a spirit of cooperation.