Bailey Nelson

Bailey Nelson doesn’t look like your garden-variety optometrist. A well-lit bunker of exposed brick, cool tunes and understated fixtures, the group’s first West Australian boutique could easily pass for a small bar.

When company founders Peter Winkle and Nick Perry began selling sunglasses at the Bondi markets in 2012, it’s safe to assume expanding into Perth’s flashiest inner-city development four years later wasn’t on the agenda, never mind having 30-plus stores around the world.

Seems they were onto something when they decided – to paraphrase the poster hanging in the Perth store – making fantastic eyewear frames available at reasonable prices would be their calling.

Designing and manufacturing its own glasses and sunglasses is one of the keys to keeping costs in check. Of the 400 available designs (or “skews” as they’re known in industry-speak), the Perth store carries 330, and the group’s head designer Ryan Nix adds a couple of different styles each month.

Glasses start at around $125 for a prescription pair, and the frames are more akin to a fashionable accessory than anything else. Maybe it’s time to finally ditch your contacts.