Anne et Valentin Feist: The Cat-Eye Built for Small Faces (42-22-145), Colorways and Fit
In short: The Anne et Valentin Feist is a 42-22-145 cat-eye in stainless steel and acetate, $615, which the house says was "created for the littlest faces." Blue/Brushed Brown (U222) and Purple/Brushed Brown (8A11) are in stock at Gazal Eyecare; Green/Brushed Brown (U136) is available to special-order.
Genuinely small frames are hard to buy. Plenty of brands describe a 48 mm eye as petite; very few actually build down to 42 mm, and fewer still do it in a cat-eye, because a small cat-eye has almost no room for error in the corner.
Anne et Valentin's own line on the Feist: "FEIST is a cat-eye full of audacity and optimism created for the littlest faces. With a wink to retro, Feist looks firmly futurist, always surprising. Our designers like to think it offers the fleeting elegance of a hovering bird to its wearers."
"Created for the littlest faces" is not a hedge. It is the design brief.
Why the numbers are the story
42-22-145. A 42 mm caliber, a 22 mm bridge, 145 mm temples, in stainless steel and acetate, produced in France.
Across everything we carry from Anne et Valentin, calibers run from 42 mm to 51 mm. The Feist is at the floor of that range, tied with the Fanzine and the Frehel. But the bridge is where it separates from them: at 22 mm the total front comes to roughly 106 mm, against the Fanzine's 108 mm. That two-millimetre difference is the Feist being the narrowest front we stock from the house.
The temples tell you something too. 145 mm is the longest temple length in our Anne et Valentin range, on the smallest front. That combination is deliberate: a small front with a long temple keeps the frame stable on a small head without needing to be wide, and it means the frame can be adjusted to sit properly rather than gripping.
The material, and why the frame costs what it does
Feist is a Formacolor frame — stainless steel and acetate working together. Anne et Valentin put the concept as a question: "Can metal feel warm?"
On a frame this small, the steel is doing structural work that acetate could not. An all-acetate rim at 42 mm would need enough thickness to stay rigid, and that bulk would swallow the lens opening. Steel holds the outline in a much finer section, which is how the Feist stays delicate at a size where most frames turn chunky.
At $615 it is the most expensive Anne et Valentin frame we stock, $70 above the other Formacolor models. The combination construction is the reason.
The three colorways
| Colorway | Color code | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Blue/Brushed Brown | U222 | In stock — 1 piece |
| Purple/Brushed Brown | 8A11 | In stock — 1 piece |
| Green/Brushed Brown | U136 | Special order |
All three pair a colour against a brushed brown. Brushed is a matte, faintly textured finish rather than a polish, and it is what keeps a two-tone cat-eye from reading as loud.
Blue/Brushed Brown (U222) is on the shelf. It is the coolest of the three and the most straightforwardly wearable with a professional wardrobe.
Purple/Brushed Brown (8A11) is also on the shelf, and it is the warmer read — purple against brown rather than against the skin.
Green/Brushed Brown (U136) is the special order of the three.
Where it sits
Feist is number seven on Anne et Valentin's own dealer best-seller ranking — the full list is in our best-sellers guide. It is the cat-eye of the three Formacolor shapes we stock, against the Fanzine's round and the Foryou's hexagon; we compare all three in Feist vs. Fanzine vs. Foryou.
If the size is what brought you here, the guide to Anne et Valentin frames for small faces sets the Feist against the five other frames we carry in the 42–47 mm bracket. The line itself is covered in the Formacolor collection guide.
Price and availability
The Feist is $615, with two of three colorways on the shelf as single pieces. All three are on the Feist product page, and the rest of the house is in the Anne et Valentin collection.
More on Anne et Valentin
- The Anne et Valentin Design Story: Why French Frames From Toulouse Look Like Nothing Else
- Anne et Valentin Collections & Frames: How to Choose Your Pair
- Anne et Valentin: Acetate vs. Metal Frames — How to Choose Between the Two
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the Anne et Valentin Feist measurements?
Anne et Valentin publish the Feist as 42-22-145: a 42 mm caliber, a 22 mm bridge and 145 mm temples, in stainless steel and acetate, produced in France. That is about 106 mm across the front before the end pieces — the narrowest front of any Anne et Valentin frame we carry.
Is Feist good for a small face?
Yes, and unusually explicitly so. Anne et Valentin say the Feist is "a cat-eye full of audacity and optimism created for the littlest faces." At a 42 mm caliber it shares the smallest eye size in our range, and its 106 mm front is narrower than anything else we stock from the house. It is one of the genuinely small designer cat-eyes on the market rather than a standard frame described as small.
Which Feist colorways are in stock?
Two of the three. Blue/Brushed Brown (color code U222) and Purple/Brushed Brown (8A11) are both in stock at Gazal Eyecare, one piece each. Green/Brushed Brown (U136) is available to special-order.
What is the Feist made of?
Stainless steel and acetate. Feist is part of Anne et Valentin’s Formacolor line, where a steel rim draws the outline and acetate carries the colour and the contact points. All three of our colorways pair a colour with a brushed brown, which is the acetate half of that pairing.
How much is the Anne et Valentin Feist?
The Anne et Valentin Feist is $615 at Gazal Eyecare, which makes it the most expensive of the Anne et Valentin frames we stock.