By Meher Castelino
Fashion trends, understandably, change every season for clothes, handbags, shoes, jewellery, makeup, colours et al. Now stand by for eyewear collections for Fall/Winter 2013-14 and Spring/Summer 2014, in various hues and shapes.
The top trend for sunglasses and optical frames is sporty, edgy for both, His and Hers. However, do look out for the vintage inspiration in shapes, patterns, decorations, and textures of fabric, leather or wood. Daily wear lenses in super funky colours like brown, green and burgundy are most sought after.
PRADA
The Linea Rossa collection for menhas two lines from Prada. Netex is the laminated fibreglass lens with rubber temples, and themasculine Aviators are the sporty wrap around range. The Benbowcollection is a blend of metal and plastic; the Allpaca is double bridge with anti-slip ear tips.
The Fall/Winter 2013 Prada main collection’s ‘Ornate’ line evokes retro 1940s style with precious stones and handcrafted crystal flower in black and white. The ‘Cinema’ collection is the ‘50’s modern twist in mixes of ivory, cacao violet, black ivory tortoise shell. The ‘Pantos’ and ‘Poeme’ are bold in their thickness with wither cat’s eye or squared acetate front.
For men, it is the sharp, square, thick brow frame with a light lower edge that will be trendy in the ‘Cast’ collection with five styles in a contrast matte glossy finish in black matte, marble black and tortoise shell. The very stylish studious round tortoise shell shape and the combo of plastic and metal double bridge have survived the test of time.
GIORGIO ARMANI
Giorgio Armani was the first fashion designer to introduce eyewear in the late 1980s and the ‘Garconne’ range for men and women with velvet accents for temples and front frames is a very high end collection and considered the most expensive in sunglasses with the arm tips and frame rims in gold plating.
For women the gold plated metal details are inspired by the Giorgio Armani bag collection. The flat metal with a hint of cat’s eyes and the round aviators are the fashionable trend directions from Giorgio Armani.
For men there are accentuated corners and temples covered in black blue or chestnut velvet on the interior with gold plated hinges and inner circles.
EMPORIO ARMANI
The Autumn/Winter 2013 collection for both sexes is vibrant and stylish. For the ladies it is the ‘Kajal Collection’ with round shield-like temples studded with rhinestones, which is also an extension of the Emporio Armani garment line. There is a hint of a funky style in the youthful, flat, red metal round shape for frames which recreate the retro look. The wrap around shield shape with jewel temples is available in pink, blue and green
For men the textured coloured rubber finish is for everyday wear, while the sporty sun glasses with a springy spiral rubber strap that can hang around the neck during outdoor activities looks practical. There is the thick and square shaped frame with rubber cord wrapped in a metal mesh and another in a semi rigid plastic temps that twist around to form an ear piece. For more sophisticated styling the firm space-age wrap sunglasses will add a futuristic touch to the male buyer.
BURBERRY
For their Autumn/Winter 2013 line, Burberry has animal prints for the ready-to-wear collection colour in trench and camel tortoise shell. For women’s sunglasses there are round cat’s eye frames, which reference the iconic Burberry check.
For men the animal print is classic in colours that match the ready-to-wear line with oxblood, gold, freesia, evergreen, sapphire blue, burnt amber, black and white being offered for the tubular temples squared styles that give variety to the shapes.
The Spring/Summer 2014 line has Petal shaped sunglasses with matte acetate frames in white with scratch resistant solid black lens or squared frames in acetate with wood inserts in black, amber, tortoise or beige. The cat’s eye styles with metallic logo are in black amber bright tortoise military red melange.
The Men’s sunglass collections under ‘Wave Clear’ and ‘Wave Dot’ are inspired by the men’s runway collection colour palette and patterns. ‘Heritage’ collection has wood/metal detailing and inserts in shades of black, dark tortoise, blue. The Burberry ‘Brit Rhythm’ capsule range celebrates the fragrance for men’s foldable aviators with silver mirrored lenses or two-tone square acetate styles.
DOLCE & GABBANA
For Spring/Summer 2014 there is a 60’s flavour with the butterfly shaped front flower fantasy version on black ground. For the fairer sex the metallic filigree collection in eyewear is like a piece of baroque jewellery inspired from the Sicilian era. Offering two options – the full filigree frame for sun wear or only a lacy design for the temples when used by optical wearers; this is one of the prettiest feminine options in dressing up the eyes.
There are more stylish designs from Dolce & Gabbana like the floral print on temples in a mix of colours like red/purple or white/blue. For a more glamorous touch, the gold embedded leaf pattern in plastic for black, maroon and neutral backgrounds makes an ultimate stylish impact.
For men the very convenient plastic folding sunglasses are a practical item to carry in a suit pocket. The masculine double bridge variety of colours and lenses and another style with colour on the inside temples in eight options gives men’s eye wear a fashionable slant.
VERSACE
The Signature spring/summer 2014 model has the Versace Medusa logo in gilded metal or diamonds enhanced by tone-on-tone enamel. The lenses are in graduating brown, fuchsia, light grey, violet.
The ‘Vanitas’ line offers the gilded Greek Key motif with the baroque decorations inside the frame matching the Versace, It Bag. ‘Greek Treasure’ is inspired by hyper feminine film stars of the past. For men the Versace logo is on the outside of the temple which gives the frame an iconic touch.
