Lens Avenue isn’t just an optometry, it’s a place where fashion meets medicine, where it simply isn’t enough for a patient’s needs to be met, but to walk away having received something special – top of the line eyecare paired with unique frames found nowhere else in Sydney outside of the CBD.
Lens Avenue is the brainchild of Alison Abdullah, who after achieving her degree and masters, plied her trade alongside some of the best in the industry overseas on the Upper East Side in New York. The original plan was “to spend a couple of months overseas and come back to Australia,” Alison explained, “but I ended up spending a few years in the U.S.”
Working in New York didn’t mean a job at a regular clinic, she was working with ophthalmologists, doctors with specialist training to diagnose and manage any visual disorders i.e., not your average optometrist.
“Working with ophthalmologists meant I was working with the people who were operating at the highest level,” Alison said.
Having grown up in the Sydney suburb of Peakhurst, Alison wanted to take what she had learnt and give something back to her local community.
“I was delivering this level of quality to clients overseas, and so with Lens Avenue I wanted to bring that back to my local community… The city already has a lot of cool things happening in the optometry scene.”
Having set up shop in Peakhurst, Alison brought advanced medical equipment with her to mimic the optometric set-up she used in Manhattan.
This equipment “can detect illnesses that we weren’t able to 10 years ago at the early stages, so it’s more preventative medicine rather than curative.”
Once you walk into the boutique, you’re met with a very personalised experience from the moment you walk in, to the moment you walk out.
“Whatever is needed to best fit your visual needs,” Alison explains. “The entire process is customised to the individual.”
This includes the often-daunting process of choosing the right frames, which is why the specialists at Lens Avenue guide you through the whole process. Your choices aren’t limited to standard black plastic frames, but a wide variety of independently sourced frames from specialist brands.
“The frames that we carry are all independently sourced,” Alison said. “We source from companies that only make eyewear, so you’re not going to find any flashy brand names or mass-produced products, but from optical companies who handcraft their frames.
“These brands aren’t widely available because they don’t sell to just any store. They aren’t your run-of-the-mill, everyday shelf frames, these are high-end frames.”
These frames come from mostly European and Japanese companies and include the likes of Theo, Anne & Valentin, DITA, and Mr Leight.
“The thing that excites me about the brands we work with is that they don’t do anything else but make glasses.
“You put these things on your face all day, every day, so why would you go with something that doesn’t fit well or feel comfortable? These brands, they know what they’re doing – everything is weighted appropriately and fits well, they last a very long time, and they look good.”
Frames aren’t the only thing that have received the boutique treatment but contact lenses as well.
“You’ve got contact lenses that sit on the shelf, that’s about 90% of the market, which are disposable and not made to order. Then you’ve got more complex fittings where the lens is completely customised to fit the shape of the eye.
“There are different purposes for these. Reshaping the cornea while you sleep so that when you wake up, you have perfect vision. These can also be used to slow down short-sightedness, or as custom lenses that only fit you perfectly.”
Lens Avenue provide an experience, a quality selection of frames, and expertise you’d be hard pressed to find outside of the Sydney CBD.
“What’s most important for us at Lens Avenue, is that you, our patient, walk out happy. We want you to feel that we’ve taken care of your eyecare needs, we’ve met your visual requirements, as well make you happy. We want you to feel like you’ve walked out with something special.”
Book an eye exam at Lens Avenue today and grab something special for yourself.
