SHADY CHARACTER originally began in the 1970s when Linda Rae Tepper and Steve M Abrams started the vintage shop "The Ruby Slippers" in Manhattan.
They were fascinated by the "ARNEL" and "FDR", the representative models of "TART OPTICAL" that they had in dead stock, and started to produce eyeglasses using molds made by "TART OPTICAL". Therefore, this brand, named "Shady Character", has many models inspired by frames from "TART OPTICAL".
In particular, a model of the same style as TART OPTICAL's ARNEL, which was released in 1979 under the name "James Dean EYEWEAR COLLECTION" and featured a reproduction of the double diamond rivets actually worn by James Dean, was very popular, but due to copyright issues it was only released for a short period of time, and despite being a later item than TART OPTICAL, it is now considered a fairly rare vintage frame.
Founders Linda R. Tepper and Steve M. Abrams are serving as advisors on this project, faithfully recreating the atmosphere of the time.