The Eyewear Duo Taking the Middle East By Storm

Introducing Cones & Rods: eyewear like you haven’t seen it before. As the Cones & Rods team say themselves, ‘every time you wear a pair of C & R glasses you’re making a statement.’

The Saudi dynamic duo of Faye El-seif and Dalal Almousa founded Cones & Rods as a result of their strong friendship and a shared love of vintage eyewear. Their consequent eyewear collection has all the elements of the vintage glasses they admired, plus their own twist. Each pair of glasses is designed and named after an inspirational person of Arab origin who has done something or made a name for themselves. This includes architect Zaha Hadid, scientist Dr. Adah Almutairi, and poet Gibran Khalil Gibran. After speaking to Fate and Dalal, it’s clear why they are doing so well, with a focus on sustainable consciousness, a strong brand concept with meaning and being able to cut through the noise in a saturated market and product category.

Why did you originally start Cones & Rods?

We started Cones & Rods from our joint passion of vintage eyewear. We wanted to create designs that are not only unique but that also have meaning. The concept of our brand starts with the definition of Cones and Rods, which are the receptors in your eyes that perceive light and colour. The idea behind that was to create concepts and storylines that make people shift or think twice about their perception of things around them. So, for our first collection ‘Perception’, focused on telling a story that by shifting ones’ own perspective they can find happiness. In essence, the reason we created this brand was in hopes to inspire and influence a positive change through ethical and environmentally conscious design. 

Is promoting other women in your marketing important to you? Why?

Promoting other women is definitely important to us. While there have been great advancements for women in the workplace (whether in Europe or here in Saudi Arabia), we still have inequalities that are in the way. Our aim in promoting other women in our marketing is to highlight women’s accomplishments in business and their communities rather than what they wear and how they look. 

Which other women do you admire and look up to?

Lubna Al Olayan, Malala Yousafzai, Zaha Hadid, Dr. Hayat Sindi are some of the women we look up to on a personal and professional level. 

What has been the hardest thing you’ve faced so far since launching Cones & Rods?

The hardest thing we face is competing in a highly saturated market as a small start-up. The eyewear industry is very competitive, with big players dominating the field. As two young entrepreneurs, we face a lot of challenges as we try to step into the eyewear industry and try to compete from the manufacturing process, to placing our products and getting recognition and attention from consumers. 

What’s the first thing you both do when you get up?

We currently have very different schedules. Dalal is interning at a hospital and starts her shift early morning, so first thing she does is get to work! Faye is working from home at the moment, and so has the leisure to workout first thing in the morning before starting her day. 

What makes Cones & Rods unique?

Cones & Rods is unique in many ways, starting with our products being limited editions only. A large percentage of eyewear produced are never sold and eventually thrown; so, we focus on producing limited pieces to each of our designs. Unlike other luxury limited edition brands, we don’t spike our prices as high, our prices are comparable to other mass production luxury eyewear brands. Additionally, all our designs have our signature temple tips that resemble the synapses of cones and rods, reflecting that once you put on our sunglasses it is connecting to the receptors in your eyes and allow you to have second perspective. 

What kind of pressures do you face as female entrepreneurs in the Middle East?

We actually don’t face any particular pressures as female entrepreneurs here. We have some struggles in terms of business regulations and such, however those are hurdles all small businesses face here in Saudi. We have actually received a lot of support for being young Saudi women who design and run their own brand! 

That’s so nice to hear! What advice would you give other women who want to start their own business?

The biggest piece of advice in starting a business is research. Understanding the market you want to get into is very important, as well as the processes you have to go through to start. Creating a business plan is so helpful, we didn’t go through these steps in as much detail as we should have, and if we had, our journey could have been easier. When you know the steps you have to take and the potential challenges in your way it’s much easier to navigate through them and succeed. 

Are being sustainable and as eco-friendly as possible important to you?

Yes, it is actually one of our fundamental values. In our designs we purely use titanium or metal, so even our nose pads are not made with plastic. We follow through with our packaging which uses recycled cardboard and polyester. It’s difficult to be as sustainable as we would like to be, as there is still some form of waste being produced, not including emissions to ship our products all the way from Japan, however we try our best to find the most sustainable option. 

Which are your favourite Cones & Rods products?

Our favourite would product would have to be the Zaha. We think the design in terms of its delicate detail and versatility to fit most face shapes, embodies what we strive for when designing our collections. 

What do you do to unwind when you’re stressed?

Dalal’s go to would be to practice yoga, it’s a great stress reliever. Faye would spend time at the stables, and ride. 

What are the future plans for Cones & Rods?

We are launching our second collection by the end of the year, so we’re excited about the next step for our brand. We are hoping to place our products in other online and physical stores in the GCC as well as London, which would be a big step from us. In our future plans, we are looking at more sustainable practices for producing eyewear, and hope to grow our social media platforms to be able to support other young designers and creatives in the region.