111 Years of Moscot: Inside the Coveted Family-Owned Eyewear Brand

For more than a century, Moscot has been synonymous with New York eyewear. Founded in 1915 by Hyman Moscot, who sold ready-made reading glasses from a pushcart in Manhattan’s Lower East Side neighborhood, the family-run company grew from a local optical stand into one of the most recognizable eyewear brands in the world. Today, in its fifth generation, Moscot maintains its roots in downtown New York while operating boutiques in cities including London, Melbourne, Florence, Barcelona, Vienna, Paris, Tokyo, and Seoul, among others. 

Known for its distinctive acetate frames and commitment to optical expertise, Moscot has become identifiable through signature styles—like the Lemtosh, the Miltzen, and the Nebb—that have adorned the faces of artists, musicians, and actors, including John Lennon, Andy Warhol, Johnny Depp, and Al Pacino. While the brand’s aesthetic has evolved alongside contemporary fashion, its ethos remains rooted in optical expertise, craft, community, and personal service. Each shop evokes the character of Moscot’s original Lower East Side storefront, filled with display cases and collected artifacts, that evoke a sense of lived-in history and reflect the family’s long-standing presence in the neighborhood and beyond.

As Moscot celebrates 111 years in business, ahead of its Fall 2026 collection preview next week, Whitewall sat down with Harvey and Zack Moscot, fourth- and fifth-generation family members, about shaping the brand’s future while preserving its heritage, the appeal of its classic frames, designing from scratch, and how Moscot balances old-world expertise with contemporary perspectives.

From a Pushcart to a Global Brand

WHITEWALL: Tell us a bit about the foundation of your family’s brand, created in 1915 by Hyman Moscot. He began selling eyewear from a pushcart, right around the corner from where we are now?

ZACK MOSCOT: Yes, he came over here in 1899 on a ship from Eastern Europe. He was an optician there. He didn’t speak English, so when he came here, he grabbed a bunch of glasses, and he set up shop on a little push cart right here on Orchard Street. This was the street where everyone had push carts, selling things, and he sold ready-made reading glasses. It was a one-man show. He was all alone.

At the time, there was no prescription. It was all for seamstresses and people who were making things in these tenements, and they would come down, try them on, and if they saw more clearly, they would buy them. They were magnifying glasses at that time—and they were all, more or less, the same. Little tortoiseshell frames, metal frames, circle frames. Ironically, he also sold combs on his cart. We launched a comb as an homage to him, but it was more for the story. 

WW: How did the legacy continue? 

ZM: It’s a funny story. He had a son who was born on Ludlow Street—Sol, my grandfather, whom I was named after. I’m Zachary Sol Moscot. They opened the first shop there on Rivington Street, which was Babeland, and they were there for a few decades. Then, Sol incorporated Moscot at that location in 1915, which is why we just celebrated 110 years. They eventually moved down the block, my grandfather joined the business, and he ran the shop for 50 to 60 years. My father joined as the first optometrist, as an eye doctor. My grandfather always said that if there wasn’t a doctor that showed up, they weren’t selling glasses, so my dad said, “I’ll be the first doctor.” He joined the business with his brother, who was also an optician. My grandfather’s an optician, my great-grandfather was an optician, and my great-great-grandfather was an optician. 

I didn’t like eyeballs that much, but I always wanted to join the business, and my uncle passed. Fortunately, he was starting to evolve the brand with my dad, with a vision to bring the story on a global scale. People were really appreciative of what we were doing—what we were making, what we were offering. When I started working in high school, I saw the design side of the business. I love design, so I went to school for design and studied product design in Michigan. I did a thesis on eyewear, and the day I graduated, I was working here full-time. It’s been 12 years, and I’ve been working with my dad ever since.

A Five-Generation Family Business

WW: How does it feel to work within a family-run business?

ZM: I love it! I don’t know if it’s for everyone. We’re different generations, but we’re really close, and we bring different aspects to the table. I’m probably more creative and digital. I’m a millennial, and he’s a boomer. He has such a sensibility for retail and the human element because he’s spent so many decades in the shop himself—examining eyes, dealing with people.

He’s still very focused on the retail side. I work closely with the team here on creative product and marketing. It’s a juxtaposition of the legacy retail side of what we’ve always done, pushing the brand forward digitally and exploring new things. And it’s almost what I do with design, focusing on what we’ve done for so long, but still trying not to rest on our laurels and evolve it into what Moscot is today—or what it will be. 

We try to instill these values. We want people to feel like they’re walking into the family shop. Even though it’s not a Moscot family member behind the counter, these are things we train and try to instill in the culture. Harvey still speaks to every person we hire in a retail shop. 

“We’re different generations, but we’re really close, and we bring different aspects to the table.”

—Zack Moscot

WW: How are you balancing the history and heritage of the brand with contemporary interests and perspectives? How are you thinking about that when approaching brick and mortar stores, especially when online shopping is still such a strong method for consumers?

ZM: At the end of the day, the experience of going into a shop—the Moscot experience—is not something new. It’s about the human-to-human interaction. We’re trying to remain a family, local neighborhood shop. That’s part of our sauce. It never changes.The optical expertise we provide in the shop remains paramount for us. We make sure people understand the optical side of it, too—what the right lenses are for their needs and lifestyle. We have all different age groups and people that shop with us, and we want them to trust that we know what we’re doing because we do. We have been doing it for over a century. It’s something that distinguishes us as an eyewear brand. 

We’re complementing that with the global fashion brand aspect. We’re launching new collections and we’re very fashion-oriented, but at the same time, we’re still very much service-oriented and optical-focused. I’m not going to say no one’s doing that, but it’s rare—being optical experts and relevant from a fashion perspective. 

We’re doing a good job of being a global omnichannel brand. We see our customer, we know our customer—whether they shop in London or New York—and we speak to them in a way that makes sense. And we always provide a memorable experience. That is really important.

“We’re trying to remain a family, local neighborhood shop. That’s part of our sauce.”

—Zack Moscot

New York: Moscot’s Enduring DNA 

WW: How much of Moscot’s success do you attribute to New York City?

ZM: So much of the brand is in New York. We always say when you wear a pair of Moscots, you’re wearing a piece of New York—a piece of family, a piece of heritage. The New York aspect is a large part of the DNA. You bring New York wherever you go. Even if you walked into a shop in Tokyo, we hope it feels like a slice of downtown New York. 

There are New Yorkers who find the brand elsewhere first because everyone’s traveling nowadays. Our customer is a traveling person, and they are shopping in multiple locations. It’s important for us to know them by name; to remember where they shopped. All these things make it feel familiar, even though it’s a global company.

WW: All Moscot stores have a similar atmosphere. Any store that I walk into, I recognize its distinct design as “Moscot.”  Can you tell us more about the retail spaces’ designs, and what colors, materials, and items fill them? Who is the designer? 

ZM: The architect is my Uncle Lloyd. We like to keep it in the family. [Laughs] We work with him on every shop we build in the world. 

My great-grandfather hired a Swedish carpenter at the time. We take these architectural elements and remake them, but everything’s pulling in from the history of the original shop. Everything we pick, from the color of the wood to the knobs, reflects how the original shop looked. All the way down to the “try on” stations—those fixtures in the shop that have the frames on them. 

The aesthetic of the brand is a time-based creation of stuff. We call it the “Moscot organized entropy.” For decades, my grandfather would buy antique— random signs, artifacts, and tchotchkes—and bring them home. My grandmother would say, “Nope! That’s not staying here.” So, he would hang it in the shops.

When you came up the steps in the original shop, it was this living, breathing thing of history and artifacts and tchotchkes. It made it unique and almost quirky. That became the brand aesthetic. It wasn’t something that we sat around and said, “Let’s do this. Let’s have a hanging moose. Let’s have a bunny at the cash wrap.” That was stuff we collected over time. That became the brand.

“Everything’s pulling in from the history of the original shop.”

—Zack Moscot

WW: How do you source the things that appear in the stores now?

ZM: A lot of it is shopping down here; sourcing it all over the world organically. We have a lot of stuff that we’ve collected, but we have a visual merchandising team, too.

Even the tin ceiling that we have in the shops… Tin ceilings aren’t cheap anymore. A hundred years ago, that was the cheapest ceiling to slap onto unfinished brick roofs or ceilings inside these tenements. They were built with raw brick, and people were slapping on this tin. It was who we were at the time—so now we put it in our shops. These things come from historical anecdotes.

Designing Iconic Frames 

WW: Moscot gained acclaim for its stores over the years, but its eyewear is why. The timeless designs—from the Lemtosh to the Nebb—are classics in the brand’s portfolio now. Can you share more about the design process? Is it the same today as it was back then? How does it work behind the scenes? 

ZM: Those were styles that we’ve been selling for decades; that we still sell today, that we’ve become known for around the world. At the time, they were the first of their kind. Acetate is still the main material that we use. It’s amazing for eyewear, it’s hypoallergenic, it comes in all different colors, and it’s malleable, so opticians can adjust it to fit someone’s face. So, it’s a great material for the industry. They’re no more different than the black cocktail dress, or Ralph’s Polo shirt. Those are staples of the brand that will always be. 

For some people, it’s become their identity. They don’t take it off. It’s like a pair of Converse. People will never not wear their Converses. We’re fortunate it’s become like that. We’ve reiterated it in colors and sizes to keep it fresh, but I don’t think it’ll ever go away.

The Lemtosh, for example—there’s something about the shape. It’s not really perfectly square, it’s not perfectly round. It fits all different face shapes. Whether you are Japanese, French, or American, it fits all faces. It’s a phenomenon, that frame. It’s really cool. It’s become a staple for us, and I think people know the brand because of it. We’ve been selling it for so long. 

In terms of new collections, we’re constantly coming out with new styles. We have multiple launches a year. A lot of what I do is looking at styles like that—ones we’ve been selling for so long—and understanding what works about it. A lot of times, it is the shape or the fit. I would say, “shape, shape, shape,”—like in real estate, it’s “location, location, location.” I work with Harvey on understanding what the right shape is for someone’s face, how it is going to affect someone’s prescription, and then that goes into the design details of the frame, asking questions like, “How thick does it need to be?” 

If I’m working with a different material, we’re thinking about how someone with a high prescription is going to wear it. We’re not designing in a vacuum for looks, not thinking about how it’s going to affect someone’s vision. That’s very important to us. It goes back to what we were talking about earlier—the fashion and the optical expertise. When someone comes into Moscot, they know they can find a frame that’s going to fit appropriately and it’s going to be able to adapt to their needs and lifestyle.

I usually start with a historical reference—or I’m looking at things that are from the past, because you can’t design without knowing what has been or what there was. Then, I’m reinventing it or reconsidering what would make it fresh today. A lot of the inspiration is from the Lower East Side, but I’m also very fortunate that I get to travel a lot with my father. Being the designer is a unique angle, too, because I can go to Paris next week, I get to go to Asia, I go to our offices in Europe, I visit our shops, and I can speak to customers. I’m very fortunate that I’m not designing in an office without that global perspective of who our customers are. That’s a big piece of it.

“A lot of the inspiration is from the Lower East Side.”

—Zack Moscot

WW: How important is it for you to do in-the-field research like that?

ZM: The fashion element is driven by New York, because it’s still the epicenter of the world of fashion—at least from my perspective—so a lot of what I see down here drives that. That’s why it’s so important to be in the Lower East Side. In terms of travel, a lot of that is feedback on how things are fitting, what’s working. What are people enjoying about a certain frame? Is it the shape of the temple? Is it the gesture of the front? Sometimes, it’s about taking that feedback and incorporating it into newer styles. 

WW: The DNA of the brand, as you’ve mentioned, is nearly synonymous with New York. What are its values? 

ZM: The main one is treating people fairly and with respect. My grandfather, Sol, impressed that upon my dad very much. He impressed that upon me, too, even though I don’t work in the retail shops as much as they did. If you treat people fairly, they’ll come back. A lot of times, it was not even about selling glasses. It was about being kind, being nice, treating people with respect, fitting their glasses—even if they weren’t Moscot—and cleaning them, repairing them, etc. Knowing that if they did the right thing, they had a positive interaction, and they would come back and shop with us.

Those are still the values today. We try to teach that to our team and our family members around the world—that it’s not always about the transaction. We’re not about upselling to sell more. I’m treating them with respect and fairness, and knowing that if they have that positive interaction with us, they’ll come back to us, because we did something for the right reason. We’re not just trying to sell the most expensive lens. It has to be the right lens for that person.

WW: How would you describe Moscot as a brand? What is Moscot? Who is Moscot?

ZM: We’re honest, we’re authentic, and we are very craftsmanship-oriented. Artisanal. 

WW: Harvey?

HARVEY MOSCOT: I would describe us as experts. Passionate. Honorable.

WW: These are traits that can be appreciated around the world.

ZM: Exactly. It doesn’t matter the culture or language. We’re all just humans at the end of the day. We always say we’re only as good as our people. Even though you can buy a pair online, there are a lot of people who can’t. There’s the medical side of it that’s so complex for some people. They need to come to a shop. And there’s the fitting element of it. You can’t get your haircut online or by AI yet, either. That human element to what we do is what makes it different. Seeing is not wearing a t-shirt. You have to see clearly, and it makes the industry and this business complicated, but also really fun and interesting. We are changing how people can see, not just how they look. When you put both together, people are like, “Holy cow! I look really good, and I can see clearly. Thank you!” 

During the depression, Sol used to give out free glasses and adjustments. Because he was just such a believer in doing the right thing. That’s what resonates.

New York: Lifelong Inspiration

WW: New York remains a source of inspiration, but it’s a city that’s always changing. How do you think New York has changed Moscot as a company over the past century? 

HM: If you look behind you, there’s a great Norman Rockwell print up there that says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It was always hanging in our shop—my dad’s original shop. It’s been about the diversity of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and always embracing diversity among our customers. We always look for those environments because you learn so much from that in a business, as a person, and your perspectives on life, too.

But we are truly still five-generational. Still family-owned, family-controlled, family-run. There’s no one else who can say that. That’s why we remain who we are, and what we are. 

“We are truly still five-generational.”

—Harvey Moscot

ZM: When we open shops, we don’t settle for a shop that’s open. It has to be the right location, the right place for us. We’ve had cities that we’ve walked, and we’ll wait two years to find the right location. 

HM: And I still personally meet every manager that works in a Moscot shop—anywhere in the world, they have to pass through me. We have team meetings. Also, if I can they, they come into New York to the store to train here and get a feel of New York by working in the New York shop. Everyone who works in a Moscot shop is a representative of our family.

It is really important that what they project is consistent with our values in the way I did it, my dad did it, my grandfather did it, and the way Zack does it. It’s paramount.

WW: Talking about expansion in a geographical way is retail-minded, but I’m interested in hearing how you’re expanding in other ways—such as through partnerships. How do you handle the change in cultural fixations, such as influencers, brand collaborations, etc.?

ZM: We never got into the influencer game, because even the celebrities who wore the brand were always organic customers. We didn’t seek them out. For decades, they lived down here. Many of these artists went on to become famous celebrities or musicians, but they were just customers of our brand. It didn’t matter who they were, we serviced and treated them the same way. A lot of them really liked that they weren’t getting any sort of special treatment. That wasn’t who we were. We’ve kept that M.O. as part of who we are. 

We hardly look at social media. We don’t give frames for publicity or influence. If there’s a partnership, it’s not about pay, it’s about someone that aligns with our values. Did they have a job if Instagram is gone tomorrow? Were they an artist? Were they a chef? The types of people who were fans or customers of our brand. That’s always how we approached it. 

In terms of collaborations and partnerships, we always felt like one plus one had to be three. If there wasn’t an added value to the whole concept, what was the point? Even this year, for our anniversary, we teamed up with Ascari. He’s a true artisan. He builds bikes by hand. He comes from a Ferrari legacy in Italy of cars, and everything he does is with so much care and attention to detail. We made these one-off, hand-wrapped leather frames. We felt like that was something special and unique to offer to our customers. It wasn’t about slapping another name on something else. 

If there’s a story, meaning, and value to it, we entertain it. That’s how we look at partnerships, but we’re not in the business of collaborating just to collaborate. A lot of times it’s organic. These are people we like to work with. The people aspect is a big part of it. It brings everything down to a cultural point of view. We want to enjoy working with the person or brand, and we want them to have the same values and beliefs as we do. What are we doing it for? Why are we doing it? What would our customer think about it? There’s really no theme or science to it. 

Crafting Eyewear From Scratch

WW: Take me behind the scenes of the atelier. How are these frames are crafted? Where? How long does it take to make a pair of glasses? What is that process like?

ZM: It all starts here in New York from a design point of view. I’m starting two years out before a collection is launched. We source all of our premium materials in different factories around the world. A lot of our acetate comes from Italy. A lot of our parts come from Germany and other European factories. We have our own factory in China that we’ve worked with for over six decades. It’s exclusively a Moscot factory, and everything is handmade. 

It takes four to five months for a frame, from start to finish—from curing material through the 135-plus steps that a frame goes through to be completed. It’s very much handmade. It’s not that it needs to be handmade, it’s that we feel that the handmade process that we take a frame through is much more refined and accurate than if it were all machine-made. That’s a process that we choose. It’s more traditional, but we think it’s a better process and makes for a stronger and more sturdy product.

“It takes four to five months for a frame, from start to finish.”

—Zack Moscot

WW: Everything’s made the old-school way?

ZM: Even down to the hardware—the hinges, the rivets—everything’s made the old-school way. Of course, it’s a newer way of doing it, but at its core, the rivets are staked through the frame like a grommet on a boot. Are there other ways to do it nowadays? Sure. But we feel that this is still the best way. It allows us to repair a frame. It’s old school, but it’s also more sustainable because the frame can last longer. We can keep it on someone’s face longer. We can repair it. We can take it apart. We can put it back together. There are newer ways to do it, but they’re not necessarily the best.

We also have our own lens manufacturing facility in Long Island. If you come in and get prescription glasses from us, we make them ourselves, under our own roof. Speaking to the optical expertise, we’re taking your prescription when you walk into the shop and examining you and bringing you the finished product all in-house. We grind the lens, we cut the lens, we put the prescription in the lens. Nothing leaves our roof. It’s fully vertical, from the frame to the lens.

HM: Optics are complicated. It’s not like taking a garment off a shelf and just selling it. Things have to be exact when you’re dealing with people’s prescriptions. 

ZM: And they have to be triple-checked, because if the smallest measurement’s off, they’re going to walk in and say, “I can’t see.”

WW: Beyond the artisanry of eyewear, Moscot has become a cultural hub for gatherings, such as Moscot Music, which hosts musical performances in the shops. Can you tell us more about this concept, and how it was started? 

HM: I could never sing, so I became an optometrist. Music has always been part of my life. There’s always a musician sensibility that works really well in our shops for sales. There’s empathy. It’s a different type of person. It’s a more creative thinker. 

I had a guitar at work, and one rainy day in 2000-something, I started playing. My friend who can sing walked in, started singing with me, and people came in. I was like, “Boom! Let’s do this.” We started doing it in the 2000s and had some great up-and-coming bands from Brooklyn come in and play who have gone on to become quite successful. 

“I could never sing, so I became an optometrist.”

—Harvey Moscot

ZM: I think it was the sensibility of artists. A lot of the customers are artists, too. It was the culture. Even in London, for example, a lot of our employees are musicians or artists. It’s a part of who we are. 

What’s Next for Moscot

WW: What are you working on right now?

HM: We are continuing to expand our retail footprint. No one tells our story as good as we can through our own shops. It’s the best way to tell the story. We’re going to open more retail shops in selected locations that make sense for the brand and from a business perspective. Not because we have to, but because we want to.

WW: What are some places that you have your eyes on?

HM: We’re fortunate to have a huge fan base in Mexico City. We’re pretty close to doing that. We’ve been very well received in Germany—we have a shop in Munich—so maybe in other places in Germany. Maybe some other U.S locations. It has to be for the right reasons, and the shop has to make sense. 

HM: That’s why we opened in Southern London, because it felt like the Lower East Side. There was a music history behind it. It’s changed over the years, but that was always our attraction to those locations. We’re home, but not home home.