Philip Oliver Goldsmith spent seven years driving a mobile optical showroom for London's Raphaels Ltd before launching his own label, P. Oliver Goldsmith, on Poland Street in 1926, selling handmade tortoiseshell frames for four guineas apiece. He built the brand around a specific idea that eyewear could be expressive and fashionable rather than purely medical, and it became the first eyewear brand to appear in Vogue, in 1939. His son Charles and grandsons Andrew and Raymond carried the business forward, dressing Diana Dors, Michael Caine and Audrey Hepburn along the way; the Victoria and Albert Museum now holds a substantial collection of the firm's eyewear from 1930 to 1985.