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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The New Modo ECO Eyewear Collection at Urban Optiques Melds Style with Sustainability.  Eyewear Made from 95% Recycled Materials!

Okay, let’s just get this out of the way: If you are over 25 you’ll remember a time when “eco-friendly” and “fashionable” would not be uttered in the same sentence.  While Birkenstocks are great for your feet, I’m pretty certain “stylish” was never a term that applied to them.

But over the past few years, all of that has changed. Designers and retailers have come up with all kinds of creative ways to produce truly stylish eco-friendly and sustainable products from recycled materials.  One of our favorites is the Harvey Tote made from recycled seat belts, which sounds utterly horrible until you actually see it.  Turns out that seatbelts can be actually quite beautiful when weaved together into a purse or handbag.

Or take the new Modo ECO Eyewear Collection that we just added at Urban Optiques: More than 25 eyeglasses and sunglass models made from 95% recycled plastic and stainless steel. Not only are they environmentally-responsible, but they also look amazing.

MODO ECO Eyewear: Certified “Green”

The Modo ECO (Earth Conscious Optics) line is an eyewear collection marked by “firsts.” It’s the first optical and sunglass collection to be made entirely of recycled materials.  It’s also the first-ever consumer brand and eyewear collection to receive an Environmental Claims Validation (ECV) from UL Environment (ULE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a world leader in product evaluation. Getting a Environmental Claims Validation is not an easy process, so it’s quite an achievement for the New York based boutique eyewear maker.

Everything about the new Modo ECO line is about sustainability, right down to the packaging. In addition to using recycled and repurposed materials to create the frames, the collection is packaged in recycled materials and each new pair is accompanied by an easy to use mail-in recycling kit that allows you to donate your unwanted frames to charities that help supply eyeglasses to developing countries.

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Badgley Mischka Couture Eyewear by Sama Debuts Four New Hot Couture Lenses in the Uber Popular “Perry Line — This Time in Triple Gradient Lenses

Brian Glascow at Sama just gave us a heads-up that Badgley Mischka Eyewear has just released four new Badgley Mischka”Perry” Sunglasses with custom, couture triple gradient lenses.

Halle Berry was the first to be spotted in the frames and lenses (Halle is wearing the “Sands” version and was also recently seen in a pair of Sama Meret), so we think the new Perrys will be this summer’s “IT” sunlasses.

The new triple gradient lenses offer enough “flash” to truly set these sunglasses apart, but are a bit more subtle than the 24K or 18K gold lenses on the Special Edition Gold Perry suns that have been seen on Angelina Jolie and Rihanna.

Here’s an exclusive peek at the new Perry sunglasses:

Badgley Mischka Gunmetal “Storm” Sunglasses

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Fergie Spotted in the “Louis” Sunglasses from Sama Couture Eyewear!

Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas not only made the cover of the April edition of Rolling Stone Magazine, but she also sported a fly pair of Sama “Louis” Sunglasses.

Check it out!

And here are the Sama “Louis” Sunglasses up-close:

We Got A Glimpse of the New John Galliano and Tod’s Line of Sunglasses and You Are Going to LOVE Them!

This week  Marcolin, the U.S. distributor of Tom Ford, Tod’s and DSquared2, stopped in to show us the new sunglass lines from John Galliano and Tod’s.

At first we were a little skeptical.

We’ve been searching for some new eyewear lines to add at Urban Optiques for several months now, and what we’ve seen so far (outside of Francis Klein) hasn’t particularly impressed us.

We pretty much knew what we didn’t want:  Yet another line of sunglasses from some giant corporate design center with yet another fashion designer’s name stuck on the temple with something akin to Super Glue as an afterthought.

There are tons of those brands out there, and outside of the designer logo itself, there’s really not much in terms of unique design to differentiate these eyewear lines from each other.

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Tennis Star and Fashionista Maria Sharapova Launches TAG Heuer’s First Eyewear Line Specifically Made for Women

Tiger is out, Maria Sharapova is in.

And we’re overjoyed.

Last fall, TAG Heuer announced that tennis star and fashion-lover Maria Sharapova would be the new ambassador and muse for a women’s series of TAG Heuer Eyewear, adding a much needed feminine perspective to the Swiss company that’s most recognized for its luxury watches and racing-inspired eyewear.

While the announcement of Sharapova as an ambassador for TAG Heuer Eyewear preceded the scandal surrounding TAG Heuer’s other marquis spokesperson, Tiger Woods, there is no doubt that marketing execs in Zurich are breathing a sigh of relief that they decided to bring the 6′ 2″ Siberian tennis star on-board when they did.

Even better, we just got a glimpse at Urban Optiques of the fruits of the TAG Heuer-Sharapova Eyewear collaboration and we’re extremely happy to say that it’s the complete opposite of last year’s Lindsey Lohan-Emanuel Ungaro partnership.

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