Europe sees Mahe through eye wear experts |24 December 2012

Two popular publications – Focus in Germany and Le Monde de L’Optique of France – feature the shop by following the tracks of its manager, optometrist Hermann Holst and its popular designer Markus Temming from Gütersloh,

The shop gets its name from the fact that after operating in their country of origin, the two men crossed the sea to share their expertise “on two continents with one passion: pure spectacle design with intelligent technology,” and its logo shows a map of Mahé and its direct link with Europe.

Asked by Seychelles Nation what their goal is, Hermann said “to have something for everybody, taking in account each person’s individuality”.

It was clear that while many of us would settle for glasses that simply do the job of helping us to see better, Markus and Hermann would like us to look our best in them, and to get them from a shop whose design is nearly out of this world, for that’s what Beyond the Sea Fashion Eye Wear looks like – the inside of a spacecraft.

Hermann has retained the original shop – Vision Care at Riverside – and opened an even more elegant outlet at the new Unity House, but these have nearly escaped mention in the German publication which only says what a wide variety of fashion wear the other outlets have, before giving the following details about the optometrist, the designer and the new shop:

“Globetrotting Hermann already had three optician shops but when adding the premium one he felt his interior design still lacked an extraordinary concept and was happy to exchange ideas with Markus when they met in Paris.”

Markus is quoted in Germany as saying in the last few years their glasses have been developing at a rapid pace, before Hermann interrupted him saying:

“I admired his amazing glasses. I told him that I was in the process of designing a new premium shop, a special kind of optician and that I was still unsure how I was going to fit it out,” later telling Nation “we didn’t have to do a lot of planning. Markus is such a straightforward person”.

Asked why he decided to go for such an unusual interior design, Hermann said:
“Well, who wants to be normal! After all, we are special – just like our customers, our eyewear and our service. I’m convinced that we’ll attract the right kind of customers with our unusual set-up and that word-of-mouth will promote our range. Everybody will want to come and look at this ‘funny shop’!”

“We aimed to have a design that would give the impression of a gallery where you can look at the glasses and also buy them, of course.”

The publication goes on to promote Seychelles saying:
“The shop itself is in Eden Plaza, a shopping centre down by Mahé’s marina. The entrance to the shopping centre directly faces the open sea and the offshore Eden Island, an artificial island.
 The location of the store is uniquely beautiful and the interior design is totally one-of-a-kind,” with an input from Markus saying:

“This unique location is really fascinating. We export worldwide, but to have a Markus Temming product in Seychelles is something really special. This whole Seychelles episode with Herman has been incredibly good fun. But also a lot of time, effort and energy had to be put into it. I look forward to new projects there.”

Hermann came from Namibia first and his country folk wanted to hear how work and life in Seychelles are different from the way they are in Germany.

“Life is much slower in Seychelles, people have a lot more time and they all know one another – they greet one another in the street. It’s rather like village life with Markus in Gütersloh-Isselhorst,” he said, explaining his contribution to widening the range of glasses available here.

Asked if he misses his old life in Hamburg while in Seychelles, Hermann said:

“That is really paradise out there! (laughing) But I sometimes miss strolling around the fish market, smoked eel and a decent Becks or Jever from the barrel, egg nog in North Fresia behind the dyke and long walks along freezing cold beach at St Peter-Ording.”

Hermann said he once used to love eating smoked eel but, “nowadays, you’re more likely to find an octopus curry with mango salad sitting on my dinner table in Seychelles. Even as a small boy, a real Hamburg Jung, the large harbour used to stir in him a desire to see far-off places. So once he’d finished his optician apprenticeship, he upped sticks and took off for Namibia, returning to Germany only to do his masters degree.

“Now it’s Mahé that he calls home. This is his world: By the water, in the tropics, next to beautiful reefs where he can indulge in his passion of water sports, kite surfing, diving and fishing,” says the publication.

“A typical Hamburg greeting is Moin, Moin – what is it you say in the Seychelles?” the reporters asked him, to which he replied, smiling:
Koman sava, ki dir and bonzour!

Feature sponsored by Beyond the Sea Fashion Eye Wear