The Brass Monocle

While working in the eyewear industry in Toronto in the late ’70s, Gary Hapton saw things were being done differently than they were in Calgary and wanted to change that. “The Calgary market was missing a high-end boutique. The fashion-forward idea just didn’t exist in this part of the world. It was all mid-market or lower-end,” Gary recalls.

So, in 1980 he launched The Brass Monocle to fill the city’s boutique niche. “We slowly but surely got the word out that we carried a more interesting product. We were trying to find different things," Gary explains, "the more up-to-date frames rather than just the classic middle of the road styles that were being supplied.”

The idea took off and a second location of The Brass Monocle was launched a few years later. In 2000, the store partnered with Vancouver’s Bruce Eyewear to help clients who travel between the two major centres. Then, in 2014, The Brass Monocle hired an optometrist at its Mount Royal Village location to create a one-stop shop for both eye care and eyewear. “We always have been asked if we do eye exams. We always knew it was something to consider if we found the space,” says Gary. A second Brass Monocle is located in The Core shopping centre.