Bidules

Upcycled eyewear, remarkable glasses, eye tests and good stories. We bring unique glasses back to li

Underestimated and forgotten eyewear hunters, taking dead stocks to the next level.

19/03/2026

Say hello to our impact press, a tool - also a friend who’s beautiful and incredibly strong (this is how we introduce all our friends).

Impact tools use a sudden, concentrated force force to make marking, punching, stamping and (in our case) riveting. We use it for our FRONTs, but also when a frame needs a little refresh before hitting the store.

Next time you’re in for an eye test, see if you can spot it on your way through.

Open for frame selections, eye-test and any frame that needs a rivet revival - Tuesday to Saturday, 10.30 to 18.30.

17/03/2026

A unique model from our 60s stock that’s just been turned into sunnies for the season!

The temple is inscribed with ‘Jouvencelle’ - we’re unsure of its exact origin, though it may reference Les Jouvencelles in Jura (FR).

There’s only one pair, better hurry.

We’ll have you for coffee, a frame selection or a ‘frame origin speculation’ session anytime from Tuesday to Saturday, 10.30 to 18.30.

12/03/2026

📡💦💎🛠♻️

More answers to questions you asked on bidules.be/you-asked

11/03/2026

For our next EYES portrait, meet Kiki (1997, Halle) who wears a burgundy Selecta from the 1970s (Jura, FR). Coincidentally, she recently met a girl in Chile wearing the exact same pair. “She kind of looked like my teenager self. It was a crazy experience.” Encounters like this definitely don’t happen often, let alone outside of Belgium.

Kiki collects banana peels that she finds on the ground - but don’t jump to any conclusions! She designs scarves based on the patterns of banana peels, photographing them and experimenting with them digitally until she finds a composition that speaks to her. We highly recommend looking them up on her account . No matter what season, it’s always scarf season in Brussels.

She also makes instruments! She’s currently building a guitar, and she’ll hopefully build a violin soon, which will be a full-circle moment for her, as she’s played the violin since childhood. Music was even her gateway to wearing glasses: at fifteen, she realised that she could no longer read music whilst playing the cello.

We love meeting the people that wear our frames and finding out all the fun lives our frames get to live once they leave our store.

To see more of the glasses we love and the people we’ve crossed paths with, check out our EYES portrait project at Eyes — Bidules

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05/03/2026

FRONT mod.17, fresh out of the workshop.

Our FRONT frames are re-assembled, refurbished and finished to every final detail in our workshop by our chef d’atelier, Mathias, whom you may have walked past when getting your last eye test.

This specific model brings together a demi-amber front and club temples from the 1950s; parts sourced from different frames, finished with original S.A Jeunet (Morez, FR) hinges.

Come try on this beauty for yourself before it’s gone!

We’re open Tuesday to Saturday, 10:30–18:30.

04/03/2026

Glasses aren’t the only thing to come back to Brussels with us from our digging trips.

Here’s a collection of accounting documents, delivery notes, exchange of letters and handwritten notes from Société V***e H. Chevassus in Jura; a major (if not the largest) supplier of hinges and frame components.

They’re dated between 1920 to 1950, some of them containing titbits of gossip, stories and professional exchanges about the goings-on between different manufacturers, opticians and their families. Our reading glasses are on.

Stayed tuned for more scans and stories. Maybe our next book will have to be textual, and we’ll uncover a whole other side of the frame-making industry in Jura.

While we’re decoding the drama and the details, many glasses (which hold more stories than you know) wait for you in the shop.

Pass by anytime between Tuesday to Saturday, 10.30 to 18.30.

All letters and documents are courtesy of the Chevassus family.

26/02/2026

A special RX series for our athletes (or urban walkers)!

Made for BRIKO by Danor s.p.a in the late ‘90s/early ‘00s. Danor is a family-owned business based in Monvalle (IT), known for its meticulous craftmanship in moulding since 1966.

BRIKO is an Italian eyewear brand founded in 1985 by Alberto Brignone. Funnily enough, it started out as the supplier of special ski wax for the Italian national ski team. They slowly but surely started making other products, notably sports glasses and are now a reliable supplier of glasses for athletes in many disciplines, notably in cycling and alpine sports.

If you’re tired of wearing contact lenses or having slippery glasses during your cycling tours, runs or walks, then these are for you.

Available with your prescription at a special bundle price in the shop only.

Walk, don’t run (run once you have the glasses) to the shop to try yours on - anytime between Tuesday to Saturday, 10.30 to 18.30.

25/02/2026

Mathys (2001, Lille) has been a part of Bidules for over four years already. Although he might not seem as familiar to you; he’s mostly in our photo studio taking pictures of the frames we share with you here (we must also give credit to Mathieu for this, although he isn’t pictured here). Evidently, he’s a photographer as well as a graphic designer and overall enthusiast of all image-making processes. He splendidly art-directed the book we published last year, ‘3000 Days of Archives Related to the Optics and Glasses Frame Industry’, and he definitely holds the record for spending the most time with our beloved scanner in the shop.

Outside of Bidules, he spends most of his time documenting the world around him. He’s been keeping a monthly ‘photographic diary’, filled with poetic, gentle, subtle analogue images and words. He works on it every night before going bed, sustaining the practice of recording on the daily. At the end of every month, he prints it into a booklet and shares it, enjoying the process of ‘shaping books from A to Z’. The series is ending soon, and we highly recommend seeing all the previous editions for yourself. You can find them all at

Nowadays he wears a Giesse (c.a 1980, IT), which is a perfect fit for many reasons, including this one: ‘I work on my computer a lot before bed and often accidentally fall asleep with my glasses on. Somehow my body knows it, because it just stays in the same position, keeping my glasses safe.” We really don’t recommend going to bed with your glasses on but somehow Mathys makes it work.

His motto is ‘stay humorous’, which really strikes the right balance with the rest of his poetic self.

To see more of the glasses we love and the lovely people we’ve crossed paths with, check out our EYES portrait project at Eyes — Bidules

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19/02/2026

Mod.14024 sunglasses from our Christian Roth restock.

Sleek shield-like mask frame of pure titanium, manufactured in Japan by Charmant in the early 2000s.

Available in two colours in store only, alongside a range of exciting new models (opticals and sunnies) from our restock.

We’re so excited to be able to bring you (even more!) Christian Roth frames! These go quickly, so make sure to pass by the store between Tuesday to Saturday, 10.30 to 18.30.

18/02/2026

An IOR-Briot advertising spread from our paper archives. If you’ve passed by the store before you might’ve noticed how much we love our Briot (it’s our lens cutting machine, it makes funny noises and sometimes smells like garlic). We didn’t even have to fall for their 1980s advertisements.

From Vedere International Magazine, éd. ARIMINUM - c.a 1985.

12/02/2026

SOON AVAILABLE IN THE STORE - U.S. made Bausch & Lomb original Ray-Bans.

A household name that needs no introduction, a true staple in the world of eyewear. Ray-ban begun in the early 20th century by making sunglasses for pilots who were struggling with headaches and altitude sickness due to exposure to bright light at high altitudes. The original design was a lightweight gold frame with lenses engineered to ‘ban’ rays of sunlight, hence the name Ray-Ban. The name quickly became ewnowed for its reliable quality and style.

Like any major eyewear manufacturer, they came up against the giant Essilor-Luxottica in the 90s. Luxottica (as you may know) is the world’s largest vertically integrated ‘capitalist world champions’ in eyewear industry. They own 80% of the eyewear market and hold licences for many other brands, such as Prada, Chanel, Coach etc etc. They’re basically a monopoly, and, needless to say, we’re not huuuge fans.

At this point, Bausch & Lomb lowered in quality to stay relevant in the market with prices imposed by Essilor-Luxottica. They were finally bought by the giant in 1999, offering them a new golden era and streamlining production and gaining back some of the quality the brand was well known for. However, this quickly tumbled again in 2008, resulting in the cheaply-produced crappy plastic frames that can be found in any airport around the world today.

But we have great news! After patiently waiting for the right stock to come along, we’re excited to bring you a selection Ray-Ban frames from the pre-hellish Luxottica era. All produced in the U.S, with the calibre the brand built its name on.

Available (soon) as opticals and sunnies in the store only, come by Tuesday to Saturday, 10:30 to 18:30.

We have endless coffee and eyewear history to blabber on about.

05/02/2026

We don’t usually get the chance to find out so much about a frame just from its packaging.

Although the frames are quickly recognised as U.S military glasses (or U.S ‘safety goggles’), there’s a lot more information to decode from the language of serial numbers. It’s always fun to investigate the journey of a frame (without trying to support the U.S. military-industrial complex).

Here’s the run down:

-The stock number indicates 6540-01-147-4674 → 6540 → Optical instruments

-The exact date of production → A-11/89 / A-6/91

-DLA120-89-D-4572 → the deal with the Defence Logistic Agency, which was contracted in 1989.

-The National Stock Number 6540-01-147-4674, or NIIN 011474674, (frame, spectacle) was assigned on February 16, 1983 in the Federal Logistics Information System (FLIS).

-Parmalee Industries, Inc. in Lenexa, Kansas. A location known for DoD frames and frame components.

-Distributed via the U.S safety division in Kansas City, Missouri.

The frames themselves are made with paddle temples (flat and wide), made of translucent brown acetate. These were regulation glasses not intended for civilians, and are typical of US military-issue eyewear from the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the post-Cold War era.

In the stock as both opticals and sunnies in two different sizes (also available with nose pads!).

Come by to try them on anytime between Tuesday to Saturday, 10:30 to 18:30.

Adres

44 Rue Ravenstein
Brussels
1000

Website

http://www.bidules.be/

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Notre histoire

At Bidules, we bring back to life unique glasses from the past, glasses from yesterday or from decades ago. Actually, age does not matter. We offer solid, nicely designed spectacles that really stand out.

We track down old stocks and pairs of iconic makes and models. We travel the world following the traces of legendary frame designers and manufacturers. We obsessively search through cellars and attics, and we secretly enter closed-down factories to find quality glasses worth preserving for future generations.

We check, repair, adapt, transform and refresh the pairs we find in order to bring you perfect new olds.