What’s the right stuff? Unlike last summer, when in-line skaters and couch potatoes alike wrapped on $80 Arnet wrap-arounds, no one brand-or style-rules. For every demographic, there’s a different look (see below). With 104 million pairs sold last year, everyone who can’t afford a convertible must be buying shades to up his coolness quotient. Or maybe there’s just a lot of sunglasses left on the bus.
Surfers, bladers and mall hoppers are all sporting bright, bug-eyed sport specs like Oakley E-wires. Protection counts–lenses .should be polarized and impact resistant. Or maybe not. Dime-size metal frames, a la John Lennon, are also sizzling. Says Jim Pritts, president of the Sunglasses Association of America: “I keep wondering if heads are getting smaller, too.”
Big frames sell best, since eyes need more protection as you age. So big frames equals big lenses equals more protection? Popular among men are classic aviators; so are wraparounds–the kind worn by that other Onassis. Older women are donning plastics that are omamented, but not over the top.
Fortyish fashion freaks are into Jackie O’s or flamboyant styles that match their(marked-down)retro clothes. Think rhinestones. Think button trim. Think Chanel meets RuPaul. Think again? Yuppie traditionalists prefer fashion and of metal and tortoise shell. way, says Foster Grant’s marketing director Alice Myer, “they want lots of detailing.”
Every Gen-Xer worth his Wired subscription is into wire frames, from $5 street fare to pricey Lunors favored by celebs like Whoopi Goldberg and Ozzy Osbourne. Ovals are hot, rectangles hotter; cool lenses are ice blue. But to be cutting edge, your wires better be stainless steel.
