Designer Eyewear

When You Deliver The Millionth Closed Loan, Your Shades Better Match The Mission! Check Out the Sunglasses from Urban Optiques Featured in Quicken Loan’s “The Millionth Loan” Movie …

Yesterday, Detroit-based national mortgage company Quicken Loans announced their millionth closed loan with a letter on their homepage (written in Comic Sans, no less) from founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert, a full-page ad in USA TODAY and a truly entertaining “mini-movie” about the guy who is put “in charge” of watching for the “millionth loan.”

Urban Optiques provided the sunglasses that appear on the two “men in black” in the elevator, the guys charged with making sure the millionth loan arrives safely to its destination.

The featured sunglasses are the Badgley Mischka Charles and the Prada PR65HS.  Both are rectangle-shaped aviators. Great choices to get that FBI/Secret Service/Private Security dude look.

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RVS by V Eyewear Blends Handmade Craftsmanship with Fab Retro Styling, Shapes and Colors.  Should We Carry RVS Eyewear at Urban Optiques?

At Urban Optiques, we’re always looking for the new and unusual to add to our eyewear collections.

We’re partial to small, exclusive independent boutique eyewear brands — especially those that show a high-level of commitment to producing not only exceptionally-designed eyeglasses and sunglasses, but also understand the value of quality over quantity.

So when we ran across RVS by V Eyewear, we were instantly enamored with not only the bold colors and distinctive retro-inspired shapes of the frames, but also the philosophy of RVS by V Eyewear and its owner Vidal Erkohen.

RVS Eyewear’s claim-to-fame is that they hand-make and assemble each frame from the ground up.  Based in Istanbul Turkey, Vidal Erkohen and RVS Eyewear produce their eyeglasses and sunglasses from the highest-quality Mazzuchelli acetate.  The acetate is left unpolished, producing a truly bold, unique matte finish that we simply haven’t seen on other frames of this quality in the marketplace.

When we contacted Vidal Erkohen to ask him about the possibility of stocking RVS Eyewear, he explained the company philosophy very succinctly:

“We believe it’s very important to produce eyewear for people who value quality over quantity. Each piece we manufacture is truly HANDMADE.  This does not mean they were “hand-placed in a case.”  Everything is truly made from hand:  From our hand painted-red screws, brand prints inside the temples made one-by-one, and hand-sewn satin cases;  all of our pieces are made with the goal to bring back the originality and quality that was put into eyewear of the past.”

RVS produces its eyewear like small batches of fine wine — their collection is relatively small compared to most eyewear lines, comprising 10 opthalmic frames and 11 sunglass models for a total of 21 frames.  Each model is typically available in five to six different colors.

Each RVS eyeglass and sunglass is limited to 1,500 pieces, making it extra-exclusive and ensuring that you’ll be only one of 1,000 people in the world to own any given RVS by V Eyewear piece.

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Who Makes the Big, Oversized, Retro-Style Eyeglasses Spotted on Lindsay Lohan?

Regardless of what you think (or if you even care) about Lindsay Lohan’s personal-problems, run-ins with the law, probation violations and occasional crimes of fashion, Lilo has always had great taste in eyewear and sunglasses.

She’s been a die-hard fan of the Sama and Badgley Mischka lines for years — frequently shopping for eyewear at Sama’s West Hollywood and Beverly Hills boutiques.  Loree Rodkin and Sama’s Sheila Vance even created a giant, oversized sunglass —  “The Lindsay” — specifically for Lohan.

So we were kind of tickled when Lohan was spotted over the weekend shopping for eyeglasses and sunglasses at the West Hollywood Destination: Sama boutique. According to Just Jared, Lindsay had just reported to the courthouse for her probation check-in and then headed over to Destination: Sama to shop for sunnies.

Now, I’ve never had to report to a probation officer (and intend to keep it that way), but I can’t think of any better activity to do after meeting with local law enforcement than to go shopping for some new sunglasses. In fact, I can’t think of any better activity to do anytime than shop for eyewear. But then again, it’s my business.

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Urban Optiques Vision & Eyewear Featured in This Week’s Northville Record “Strictly Business” Section

Just in time for the Fall eyewear season, we picked up a 3/4 page Q&A in the Northville Record!

Not only were we thrilled with the coverage, but we are also extremely pleased with how well it represents who we are, what we do and what we believe sets us apart from nearly every other Metro-Detroit eyewear boutique and optometrist.

Check it out (click on the image for larger version):

Mickey Rourke Wears Sama D.C. Eyeglasses in Red Eyeglasses in “The Expendables.”

This weekend, The Expendables debuts at movie theaters in Europe (it opens in the U.S. next weekend) and we’re already fielding questions at Urban Optiques about who makes Mickey Rourke’s retro-inspired eyeglasses in the movie.

Anyone who came of age in the ’80s will know that Mickey Rourke was one of the decade’s sexiest bad boy actors. Who can forget the steamy 9 1/2 Weeks that paired Rourke with Kim Basinger and had to be substantially edited to earn a mere “R-Rating” at the box office?  He had that whole quiet, tough guy swagger down pat and it more or less made Rourke an icon among both men and women.

Not an easy thing to do.

But right at his height, Rourke seemed to disappear.  He took up boxing again.  He got his face bashed in which resulted in a round of reconstructive surgery that Rourke admits didn’t go the way he had expected.  For nearly a decade, there was hardly a word about Mickey Rourke.

And then in then 2005, Mickey Rourke staged an unlikely comeback thanks to his role in Sin City. The credits continued to accumulate, including an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his role in the 2008 film The Wrestler and his role as the villain “Whiplash” in this Spring’s blockbuster Iron Man 2.

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