Archive for February, 2010

Urban Optiques launches Optiques TV — Our new YouTube Channel to help you keep up with the latest in fashion, eyewear and vision care

This afternoon the buzz around Urban Optiques was all about the video:  Specifically the launch of Optiques TV, our new YouTube Channel dedicated to keeping our clients and patients (and the world, really) in the know around eyewear trends and vision care health.

For the launch of Urban Optiques TV,  we decided to put together a fast-paced, stylized video featuring one of our favorite (and most popular) eyewear designers and manufacturers: Lafont.

The whole idea was to produce a music-video inspired short film that brought Lafont’s nearly 100 year tradition of crafting chic, dazzling French eyewear together with images of the world’s most fashionable and romantic city.

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• @mashable Twitter Phishing Attack Spreading via Direct Message [WARNING] – http://bit.ly/aFC6jj — It continues. Two DMs today. #
• Angelina Jolie Spotted in Venice in 24K Gold Badgley Mischka sunglasses: http://bit.ly/dAfAst #fashion #celebrities #sunglasses #
• RT @MetroMix Like, totally '80s fashion!: Ten ways to incorporate '80s fashions into a chic, modern wardrobe http://bit.ly/a2EPmc #
• Tom Ford Goes Retro with the TF 5116 Eyeglass: http://bit.ly/9yktL0 #tomford #eyewear #fashion #
• Mark your calendars Sat. March 27th, 4-7pm for the "April in Paris" FRED Eyewear Cocktail Party at Urban Optiques! Details to come #detroit #
• Excited about upcoming feature on Urban Optiques in an upcoming MAJOR eyewear trade mag … stay tuned. #
• Looking for suggestions for cool music to play in the office. What would YOU want to hear. Tweet it out … #
• Putting in an order for some new Sama suns and Chrome Hearts … #
• Okay, just bought 100 French Music Classics on iTunes … Forgot that 100 songs takes A LONG time to download. #

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Tom Ford Goes Super-Retro with the TF 5116 Eyeglass Frame

In the fashion industry, Tom Ford has built a name for himself as a designer who pushes boundaries, whether in his runway fashions at Gucci or in the racy promotional campaigns for Tom Ford Eyewear that got his advertising banned in Italy.

So it’s a bit surprising to see the former lead-designer at Gucci and now award-winning director of the critically-acclaimed movie “A Single Man” introduce so many retro-inspired eyeglasses into the current Tom Ford Eyewear collection.

Or maybe not.

Vintage-inspired fashion continues to be a major theme in spring and fall collections from Chanel, Lanvin, YSL and Dior, and Ford himself just finished directing a period-piece, so retro and vintage style eyewear is probably top of mind for Tom Ford.

Which brings us to our designer eyeglass of the week: The Tom Ford TF 5116.

This is another one of those Tom Ford eyeglasses that is screaming for the right face shape and attitude.

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Angelina Jolie Rocks the Badgley Mischka Perry Sunglasses with 24K Gold Lenses … This Time in Venice.

The Badgley Mischka Perry Sunglasses with 24K gold lenses just seem to get hotter every day. First spotted on Angelina Jolie over a year ago, the suns got a huge boost when they appeared in Rihanna’s “So Hard” video in November of last year.

And then we see this super lux aviator frame pop up yet again on Angelina in this clip of Jolie, Brad Pitt and the kids taken in Venice over the holidays (courtesy of Access Hollywood):

Love the voice-over from Access Hollywood:  “Put the rumors to rest:  Brad, Angie and the kids cruising the canals of Italy all bundled up and wearing sunglasses.”

While we love the shades, we do find it funny that Angelina and Brad Pitt seem to be the only ones on the streets of Venice wearing sunglasses …

The FT-5117 Women’s Eyeglass from Tom Ford Brings the Sexy Back in this Little, Sophisticated, Retro-Inspired Spectacle

One of the trends over the past year that we can’t get enough of is retro-inspired fashion and eyewear.

From cats-eye glasses, to heavier men’s frames with horned-rims, to the return of ’40s, ’50s and early-’60s-inspired oval shapes in women’s eyewear, retro continues to be extremely hot.

The great thing about retro-inspired eyewear and fashion is that their shapes, cuts and colors tend to be classical and enduring.

There’s a reason why vintage or vintage-inspired eyewear never really completely goes out of style: It works on a lot of different faces and can easily be matched to complement or contrast against a person’s own personal style.

One of our favorite retro-inspired women’s eyeglass frames is the FT-5117 from Tom Ford Eyewear.

Tom Ford doesn’t name his eyeglass models, choosing instead to use numbers versus words, so we usually end up developing nicknames around the shop to refer to different numbered models.  So the the Tom Ford FT 5117 is affectionately known around Urban Optiques as “that sexy librarian frame.”

Which pretty much describes this unique, half-moon acetate frame that’s meant to sit down just a tad on the bridge of your nose (or all the way down for that really smart, flirtatious-I’m-looking-over-my-reading-glasses-at-you-vibe.)

This frame feels like it’s straight out of a Mad Men episode:  Fuzzy sweaters, pencil skirts and all.

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The Lafont Brazil Sunglass puts the “Tres” in “Tres Chic” with this Magnificent Round Sunglass that You’ll Never Find at “The Sunglass Hut”

If you haven’t noticed yet, we adore everything about Lafont.

From their inspired optical eyeglass collection that offers a color, pattern and frame shape for seemingly everyone (it’s just a matter of trying them on, trust us) to Lafont’s imaginative sunglass line that breaks every convention — yet seem to always look so sophisticated, classy … and well … so French –  Lafont continues to be one of our most popular eyewear lines among both our clients and the Urban Optiques team.

Last month, we refreshed our Lafont eyewear collection and brought in over sixty new Lafont frames from their 2010 Spring eyewear collection. Being the sun lovers that we are, we also picked a half-dozen new Lafont sunglass models as well for the store.

It’s how we people in the eyewear business remind themselves that Spring will eventually come: We buy new sunglass stock.

One of the Lafont sunglasses that really made our heart pound was the Lafont Brazil.

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The Gold Sunglasses Rihanna Wears in the “So Hard” Video are Badgley Mischka Perry with 24K Gold Lenses.  And Urban Optiques Has a Pair!

In early January we noticed an upsurge in people asking about the Badgley Mischka Perry sunglasses.

But not just the usual Badgley Mischka Perrys — clients kept asking whether we stocked the gold Perry with gold lenses.

At first, we couldn’t quite understand the sudden interest.

Angelina Jolie had been spotted earlier sported the gold Badgley Mischka Perry with gold mirror lenses, and that caused a minor uptick in sales, but nothing like the buzz we saw over the past two months.

And then we noticed something in Rihanna’s “So Hard” video:

Yes, those gold sunglasses on the very lovely Rihanna are Badgley Mischka Perrys.

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Forget about flowers and chocolate, if you really want to make her heart flutter this Valentines Day say “Be Mine” with the gift of one of these seven hot sunglasses from Urban Optiques.

Guys, a Valentines Day Gift Tip: Next to shoes and handbags, there is only one other accessory that a woman can’t have to many of …  Sunglasses.

So while flowers are beautiful and chocolate is delicious, sunglasses are eternal.

Well, maybe not eternal, but they have a longer shelf life than roses or Godivas.

So if you’re scratching your head over what to buy your sweetie this Valentines Day, Urban Optiques is going to take the guesswork out of picking out the perfect Valentine’s Day gift by recommending seven sunglasses that are sure to please even the most discriminating woman.

All of these sunglasses are currently in-stock at Urban Optiques. In some cases, we have certain models in other colors, so please call for more information. We stock more than 100 designer fashion and couture sunglasses, so if you don’t see the perfect Valentine’s shade here, there’s a good chance we’ll have it.

And ff your sweetheart is particularly picky, gift certificates are also available.

Chrome Hearts “Queenie”

If the “Queenie” sunglass from Chrome Hearts is good enough for bored hotel heiresses like Paris Hilton, it’s sure to be perfect for your fashion-conscious sweetheart.

All jesting aside, this is a really fabulous, big sunglass with a unique square-ish frame that works on just about every face shape.  So if her sunglass collection is filled with giant round sunglasses, she’ll love the “Queenie” because it’s still big and dramatic, but breaks the mold in terms of shape.

In other words, it’s a sunglass that her girlfriends won’t have.  BIG points for you.

We have the Queenie from Chrome Hearts in “Cherry Stripe.”

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The Lafont Venise Eyeglass Frame is the Perfect Complement to this Spring’s Runway Looks

We’ve been watching the Spring couture collections like hawks around Urban Optiques and one thing is clear: Safari-inspired fashion and wild-at-heart eyewear to match is still hot, hot, hot.

We weren’t sure if the animal-kingdom inspired looks that we saw out of Donna Karan in this Fall would make it through into the Spring 2010 collections, but they did.

Everywhere we look, animal print and textures seem to be in.

And we’re none too glad for it, since we just received in a slew of new eyewear to complement the leopard prints, reptile textures and soft, muted browns, greens and khakis that appear to be winding their way into plenty of couture collections this Spring.

Which bring us to the Lafont Vanise, which is one of our favorite frames around Urban Optiques right now.

This isn’t one of Lafont’s latest releases, but it does signal their ability to spot trends long before they happen.

This frame is sophisticated and completely gorgeous, replicating an alligator-type texture on the temples with a wild but sophisticated acetate frame that is just screaming for someone to grab it and put it on their face.

The frame retails just north of $500 dollars, but we think it’s worth it.

Even better, the Lafont Venise comes in six different frame and temple colors, which got us thinking:

Could we match the Venise up with more than one look for Spring?

So we looked at four different Spring 2010 designer runway looks from Paris and New York (from Dior, Akris, Tory Burch and Chris Benz) and matched them to a coordinating Lafont Venise eyeglass frame.

We also picked some killer shoes to match the eyewear, grabbing selections from Manolo Blahnik, Sergio Rossi, Behnar Kanan and Tanja S. London.

Turns out that that the Venise worked with each one of them flawlessly — from retro-inspired fashions to “bad girl” couture.

It’s truly rare to find a piece of designer eyewear that meshes with so many different styles, but somehow the Venise from Lafont pulls it off.

Check out the looks we put together:

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