Seeing Magic with Seconde Vue
Alice Violier Amzalak
in conversation with Kerrin
Photography: Kerrin Smith
Soundtrack: Another Life by Naomi Sharon
Paris 3 & 5
Alice Violier Amzalak is the founder of Seconde Vue, the most enchanting, cool vintage eyewear boutique in Paris–think refurbished Thierry Mugler frames with a custom pistachio-colored lens. You feel Alice’s warmth and spirit as soon as you walk in: she has impeccable taste, ranging from the sharp purple details dotting 15 Rue Commines, to her own leopard accents, and she is genuinely curious about people, details, and the world around her.For our conversation, we started at the boutique in the Marais, and then took the special walk from the shop to the Seconde Vue showroom in the 5ème: the same space that Alice’s grandfather used as his office for years. In the thirty-five-or-so minutes it takes to walk to the showroom, you cross the Seine twice and see Paris in the real-life snapshots are nothing short of dreamy, or perhaps, begging the question of whether you are in a dream. That walk is a special passageway for Alice–an interstitial space, which means “a space of being between two worlds.”
The showroom feels like a fashion girl’s fairy tale, but simple and true: the second floor ceilings are maybe six feet (two meters at best), full of character with white-washed wooden beams and matching walls. Several original windows have been replaced by bright panes of optician’s glass–sun-colored yellow and bright red, Alice’s doing, obviously. The miniature door in the main showroom has emerald and violet windows. You see a full-framed drawing of the same pair Patrick Kelly glasses from the 80s that were in a purple velvet tray at the boutique and a stack of magazines from the 70s–Inform Optique and Confidence–sits in the half-moon shaped window: you look outside and it’s the Seine and an early October evening.
Alice has the kind of confidence that has you feel good about yourself and about life when you are around her: she’s clear about what matters to her, is committed to that practice of living in alignment, and holds a core value of generosity–taken together, her vibration is high and inevitably uplifts you. Around Alice, life feels more fun. She role models that you can be trop stylée (so stylish), confident, grounded in yourself, and fully regarding of others all the same time–she is the kind of tastemaker who can blaze the trail in showing how aesthetics and taste can inspire warmth and generosity.
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K: What do you burn for? Said another way: what moves or inspires you?
AVA: People. I see and meet a lot of different people–I used to be a people-pleaser, actually, and I see a connection between my own energy and the energy of other people…I switched my personality from being people-pleaser to being a listener and understanding which people are good for me and which people are not. It takes a lot of time to do this, and I don’t always do it very well. But I can say that meeting people (is what I burn for): hearing new stories and being able to connect with people on a deeper level.
Sometimes you meet people who allow you to connect to yourself on a deeper level. I had the chance to meet some people the past few years who (helped me) connect with myself–who I really want to be and who I really am. People grow me–but good people grow me, because you spend too much time with the wrong people, it can have the opposite effect on you. Meeting people, hearing new stories…you can have a conversation with another human and you can grow so much just by a tiny discussion.
I’m inspired by people, sometimes just for very tiny things. To be around somebody who is solar–who is like sunshine–this person can be super inspiring about how one wants to be. Lots of Parisiens complain easily and a lot! I learned through people that it’s worse when you complain: and you don’t have to complain–you just go through it.
K: How did you cause that switch in yourself, from being a people-pleaser to being a listener? How did you do that, how did you discover this other way of being?
AVA: I thought critically and reflected on what some people could bring me…sometimes it can be very painful to be around people [who are not right for you]. For me, one of the biggest [signs] was when I was feeling super anxious to go to a dinner or to a meeting. Anxious [about something] that is supposed to be a pleasure! That rang a bell for me: if I don’t feel comfortable going to this event or being with these people, why am I doing it?...I think this is how I connected to myself, analyzing what I feel…and if I do not feel comfortable [doing a certain event], I’m just not going to do it.
K: I hear seeds of alignment planted all throughout what you are describing so I can’t help but ask, what does alignment mean for you?
AVA: It depends on my state of mind…and I think this is what alignment means to me…to follow my heart and be able to analyze what is good for me, what I have to do for work…and to know what’s best for me. Alignment to me is being able to analyze what I need at the moment.
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K: I’d love to hear a bit about the origin story of Seconde Vue and your intentions for the brand, for your entrepreneurship, and what you’re out to create.
AVA: My grandfather was an optician. He built his first store in 1961 in Charleville-Mezieres Vallauris–a little store that still exists. I started my career at L'Oréal in France and spent five years working in digital, media, and marketing. One day, four years ago, I went to the basement of my grandfather’s first shop. I opened some random, dirty white boxes, and I discovered vintage eyewear–unsold pieces from the seventies, eighties, nineties. The design was so amazing. I went to my mum, who runs the business now, Mum did you know we had these in the basement!? My mum went into the family business thirty years ago so she knew all the pieces and was very used to them, so I don’t think she saw the potential in the same way. I think I brought a new eye for it because to me, I was like, this is gold. I’ve found a treasure.
I asked the optical team to restore the pieces by hand, and we started like that. After that, my aunt, who still comes to the Seconde Vue shop once a week, worked on all the pieces. I ended up quitting my job, launching full time on Seconde Vue, and we opened the shop a year ago.
K: How would you describe the grace and strength that you needed to leave such a big job at L’Oréal?
AVA: I had the full support of my mum, my husband (the people closest to me). Everyone was like, if you are not happy where you are, we will give you all you need to do something else. If it works, it works, and if it doesn’t work, then you can go back to L’Oréal, but you have to follow your heart. Life is too short to spend too much time [doing something that] didn’t excite me anymore. It was not an easy choice because of the money and everything, you know…but because I had the full support and belief of the people surrounding me (“we’ll be your first customers!”), it was easier.
K: It’s very powerful to be surrounded by people you trust: while you believe in yourself, in those moments where the doubt (inevitably) creeps in, you’ve got that support around you to reaffirm your belief and strength.
AVA: Exactly, I was alone but I wasn’t alone.
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K: What feels most magical to you about Seconde Vue?
AVA: There is a lot of magic in it–finding the pieces is always like a treasure hunt!
Eyewear is very connected to stories and to people. Whereas people sell their clothes pretty easily…the relationship to eyewear is not the same–people are not leaving their eyewear very easily. I don’t know why, but I think it’s an emotional thing: it's a little thing that you can store and keep, you know?
I’ve met so many people by trying to collect the most magical pieces. I’ve seen the workers, met the designers, and have seen the work in this little object. For instance, these raw frames are the first step of a prototype when you are making a pair of glasses. Everything is by hand. This is magic.
I’ve found the magic
in
this little object
by connecting with
the people who make them
and who wear them.
In connecting with the people who make and wear eyewear, (I discovered that) for many people eyewear, is a protection between the world and them. A lot of people say to me that they feel ugly without eyewear, or when they are feeling tired or anxious, they put on their glasses and it creates a barrier between the real world and them. It’s super interesting–and magical–to connect to all kinds of stories through this object. (In this sense), I don’t feel like I’m just selling something: I’m connecting with stories and this is what brings the magic.
K: This seems just so natural, thinking about what you burn for is connecting with people! I’m very present to the alignment in your life: the universe that you are creating and living in is one of listening to and connecting with people. No pun intended, but it seems like the lens you see the world through is that of connecting with people and the power that lives in that experience.
AVA: For sure.
K: I actually don’t know that much about eyewear! I know that I love my Thierry Muglers that I bought from you, I love the Diors that you are wearing. When I was living on Miami Beach, there was a vintage market on Sunday, and I’d go every week. There was a man named Don (who I actually shared about in Issue Nº3) who had probably five hundred pairs of vintage eyewear–lots of vintage Carrera and more. I remember Don said to me, “I don't understand why people don’t have as many pairs of eyewear as they do shoes.” That stayed with me. Don was my first introduction to eyewear and a few months later I met you. So…what should one know about eyewear?
AVA: This is actually a really interesting story because eyewear is not that old. To have glasses as an accessory is also a new idea. When my mum was young in the early seventies, she didn’t have that many options for eyewear. There were only one or two styles. I think it's only been a few decades that people have had options and have been wearing eyewear as an accessory.
We are very lucky in the French market because we had Alain Mikli who is one of the first French eyewear makers who revolutionized the world of glasses–creating new shapes, new colors. France also used to have a lot of eyewear manufacturers.
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K: To take us somewhere else (but certainly related!), I personally love your taste–it so accords with The World of Cool And Thoughtful. I’d love to hear you riff on what you like, what you’re into, any influences that jump out, what catches your eye…
AVA: It’s a very hard question because I can be inspired by anything and everything. It can be just a color combination, like the vibrant red and light blue I saw in a recent Jacquemus show. I was like, these two colors together are insane. My grandfather kept a lot of books and magazines, so I love to take a stack of magazines and go in my room and just look through them…(from there) I can be very inspired for a campaign.
…I have the feeling that simple things can be super beautiful…I really know what is beautiful to me and what is not…I just know what I like. For instance, I can even be grocery-shopping and see a packaging that inspires me. Sometimes when I am doing my walk–The Interstitial Space Walk!–I’ll see the boats, the light…it brings me something. It adds something to my way of seeing things…I can see a very random thing and find it so beautiful.
I see the poetry in
very random things.
*
Yes, yes she does, and in a way that’s totally non-egoic and instead offers an invitation to consider that beauty that is all around us if we start to tune our perspectives for it. You don’t have to be aesthetically-oriented nor does fashion need to be an interest. Alice’s reflection on “the poetry in random things” is an invitation into a way of seeing that can help us feel lighter, be present, and touch magic in tiny, daily ways. It feels like a gift when you start to see the world this way because everything becomes interesting. Life feels more like Techinoclor. You can let life speak to you, entertain you, and you can touch poetry.
When I asked Alice if there are any examples that jump out to her, she offered the way her husband’s shoes stayed in the exact same place as when he took them off: the toe anchoring the heel as one foot came out and then the other. He was then home, his shoes left just-so. Alice referred to them as “the living shoes.” Or her creamy matcha that she dropped and spilled on the sidewalk. Alice took out her phone and immediately took a picture.
When I asked Alice if there are any examples that jump out to her, she offered the way her husband’s shoes stayed in the exact same place as when he took them off: the toe anchoring the heel as one foot came out and then the other. He was then home, his shoes left just-so. Alice referred to them as “the living shoes.” Or her creamy matcha that she dropped and spilled on the sidewalk. Alice took out her phone and immediately took a picture.
*
K: So do you have a favorite pair of glasses?
AVA: I don’t think I do actually, because I’ve found so many pieces that it’s hard to have one. But there are some that make more sense than others depending on where I found them or the people who wore them before me. (Kerrin voiceover: the beautiful words of somebody who sees the world through her connections to people and through the stories of those around her.)
For example, at the beginning of Seconde Vue I fell in love with a Thierry Mugler pair–this was the first pair I made for myself–and I found a picture of my grandfather wearing the exact same pair. This is not necessarily the pair that I wear every day, but when I saw the picture [I was so struck by the fact that] I fell in love with this pair, and he wore them too.
K: I find myself wondering what’s happening in the cosmos and generationally between you and your grandfather. There’s obviously a special connection!
AVA: Of course! When you are collecting and finding new pieces, there is always a new favorite one. Your favorite one is the next one.
K: It’s almost like the next pair you find should be your favorite–the way an artist might feel when they are creating their best work. Are there any favorite stories you have that are connected to eyewear? Whether it’s your story, somebody else’s story…
AVA: There are a lot! There are some clients who come to the shop, and they are amazed in the same way that I am for all the pieces, the details, the experience. That brings me so much joy because I spend so much time finding pieces one by one, having them restored by hand, every pair is special, made one by one.
I had one customer who came every week to find the one, the piece. When he finally found it, he put pink lenses in them which was so much fun. I was like, this is so cool: he sees the concept how I see it, and then he exaggerated it with a pink lens.
About two years ago, there was an antiquaire–antiques collector–who had a store near the Seconde Vue showroom, and he had a lot of very beautiful vintage eyewear. I stopped by his shop a few times, voicing how much I loved the pieces, but they were all super pricey so I wasn’t able to buy anything at the time. But we stayed in touch, I gave him my number, and six months later he called me saying he was retiring and wanted to sell everything in his shop. He said, “Come for the eyewear.” This ended up being the first achat–wholesale purchase–I made. There were probably ten or fifteen boxes, and at first, I was picking them out piece by piece–he said, “you take it all, or you take nothing.” Okay, I’m taking it all! I remember going through all the boxes with my mum, oohing-and-aahing at all the pieces inside. It was such a fun process. And this man visits me at the shop sometimes! He’ll see one of his pairs, oh this one is from me!
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K: What does being Cool And Thoughtful mean to you?
AVA: A lot of things, but the main one is you can be running a cool business, have cool ideas, have cool friends–and still be someone who is connected to humans, to emotions, and super nice with people.
I am never closed to those who have small projects or who are launching a career, a podcast [etcetera]...if I’m the first guest, that is fine! Life can be so hard–just to be nice with everyone–your team, people you meet…[when you’ve become quite famous or successful] it’s even more amazing to do things like that.
*
I close our conversation by saying to Alice that the word that shines through is generosity. Alice embodies a true spirit of generosity while also being firm about what’s right for her. It’s possible to have both, and in fact, they inform each other quite powerfully: being firm about what’s right for you allows you to be fully generous–when you are connected with your own truth, with what is right for you, you can then access to the freedom to share and give in a way that is pure, without conflict of interest or emotion, and doesn’t run the risk of resentment. In this way, alignment with self is foundational to shining your light and making difference for the people around you. And this, is magic.
Learn more about Seconde Vue:
IG @secondevue & @aliceviolieramzalak
www.secondevue.fr
Paris: 33 Rue Commines
NYC Pop Up: The Fifth Avenue Hotel at 1 W28th Street, New York, NY (22-24 November)
Second Vue will be doing their second NYC pop-up of the year at the end of November (November 22-24). It will take place at the Fifth Avenue Hotel with several other brands. “We are curating a very specific selection to bring–an exclusive collection that you can’t find in the shop.” What is the spirit of the NYC eyewear collection? “A balance between very wearable pieces–but with a twist–and then also a few over-the-top pairs to feel special and extravagant, with a blend of everything in between. Since it’s mid-season, we’ll have light tinted lenses…even with a more formal pair, you’ll find a special touch by way of the color of the lenses.”