Cheap Italian Designer & Branded sunglasses

This one is going to be an essay so please bear with me. Before I start, I need to point out that I do not work for the company mentioned and I'm just a satisfied customer who got A+ service.

I thought I'd let you know about a wholesaler of sunglasses I found on the web while googling. They are based in Kingston. They specialise in shades from the De Rigo factory in Italy who produce Police, La Perla, Etro, Fila and Sting amongst other brands. The website is here and they will do retail.

http://www.sunshadesltd.com/index.html

I am a big fan of the Etro designer label (but not of their prices) so wanted to buy some sunglasses from this wholesaler. His wholesale prices are £18, which I found unbelievable (and some people will too hence the essay explaining my experience!) Etro shades retail for over £100 in the Etro boutique on Old Bond Street in London.

I called the guy last week using the number on his website and arranged to go and see him yesterday (I live in SW London so Kingston is easy for me to get to, although he will post stuff to your for £5). He was really helpful and agreed to see me on a Saturday and even suggested I email him a list of shades I wanted to try on and he would get them from the warehouse for me.

I arrived at his business address yesterday and he had brought the shades but forgot the cases so he drove me to his warehouse to collect them once I had chosen my shades (3 pairs – see link below for a pic of the ones I bought). He knows his stuff – all about different lenses and which are best and suitable for which conditions. He also explained that the factory send the shades and cases packed in separate boxes. Department stores also get them like this apparently. His warehouse was stocked full of boxes all with De Rigo sealing tape and the shades all come with De Riga bar code stickers on the packaging for each pair.

He is half-Italian and has an Italian company and bank a/c so he drives an empty lorry over to the De Rigo factory once or twice a year and then drives the stock back here, as it’s cheaper to do it that way. De Rigo UK are apparently annoyed as he is selling wholesale cheaper than they can but there is nothing they can do due to free movement of trade in the EU. He bought 120,000 pairs last year hence the low wholesale price.

I've found some of the shades that he sells on another web site selling sunglasses (retail sellers) with the same product code eg:

I found one of the police pairs he is selling
http://www.sunshadesltd.com/product-pix/police/s2684/0589/index.html
on this Italian site:
http://www.giarre.com/glasses/police-model-s2684.php

Also one of the Lozza pairs he is selling
http://www.sunshadesltd.com/product-pix/lozza/SL1704/0b26/index.html
is also on the giarre.com Italian site:
http://www.giarre.com/glasses/lozza-model-sl1704.php

ETA: This site does not like the tiny url dot com links and is replacing them with lots of !!!!! so I'm trying to add in the original looong links to the sites

Here is a link to a picture I took of the 3 pairs I bought
http://img95.imageshack.us/my.php?image=allthreepairs12vk.jpg

I hope that helps someone and I will be buying again when he gets more Etro stock in March! :j