A few days ago I needed to order a replacement frame from a local importer and described it to the girl on the phone as a Nylon Supra.... I could hear the silence on the line and realised she didn't know what I was talking about.

It was, of course, a Grooved Nylon Semi Rimless frame.

I remember the first Supras I came across in the 60s in the UK in those days they were nearly all plastic frames that were converted, the glass lenses were cut and shaped, a bevel was cut at the top of the lens where it fitted into the frame then the bottom of the lens was grooved for the nylon.

The idea came from an OO named Neville Chappell and I can recall our wholesale company paying him a royalty fee of six pence for every frame sold.

Is it only the Brits that refer to this type of frame as a SUPRA?