@cyn0212 BM's eyewear is fantastic. Which, of course, is why we carry it. Both the optical and sun collections are truly unique. in reply to cyn0212 #

@cyn0212 The Badgley's get their own case, however. in reply to cyn0212 #

@AriSGoldberg Retainers Ari? Clearly you haven't seen the Louis Vuitton designer retainer. Would change your whole view of orthodontia. in reply to AriSGoldberg #

@CenterdinDET Welcome! Gotta keep The D fashionable. Nothing makes the Train Depot look better than a pair of rose colored sunglasses. in reply to CenterdinDET #

@fishmark Apologies. You got caught in an RT storm by accident. Were once Yelp fans. Sorry for the noise. Relaxing now. in reply to fishmark #

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We woke up this Saturday to find that our first experiment in trying to bring our eyewear alive for our clients and patients through video got noticed …  4,000 miles away in Paris!

Yesterday, Lafont featured the Urban Optiques video highlighting one of our favorite French eyewear designers on their official blog “Le Blog LAFONT.”

What’s most remarkable to us about this whole story is that Lafont found our video on their own. We never tipped them off.

Lafont recently relaunched their website and included a blog as part of the redesign, which we thought was really forward-thinking.  So it was the highlight of our weekend to find our video included Lafont’s website.

You can check it out here:

http://blog.lafont.com/2010/03/12/lafont-clip-by-urban-optiques/

And here is the video on Optiques TV that started it all:

Hopefully this will intrigue you enough to come in and check out the more than 70 Lafont-Paris eyeglasses we have in stock at Urban Optiques!

Part III of the Badgley Mischka runway collection at the 11th Amsterdam International Fashion Week.

Not only does the collection have a fantastic soundtrack from Ra Ra Riot and gorgeous clothing, but it also features some amazing eyewear from Badgley Mischka by Sama.

Music by Ra Ra Riot

Ghost Under Rocks – Ra Ra Riot
Can You Tell – Ra Ra Riot
Can You Tell (Epochs Remix) – Ra Ra Riot

Here’s part two (of three) from the Badgley Mischka Spring/Summer 2010 Preview at the 11th Amsterdam International Fashion Week.

The final segment of the show will be posted tomorrow.

We love it when designers prominently feature their eyewear lines in their seasonal fashion collections.

It’s even better when they put their eyewear on the runways.

Which is exactly what Mark Badgley and James Mischka did during their Spring/Summer 2010 preview at the 11th Amsterdam International Fashion Week.

The spring/summer ready-to-wear collection from Badgley Mischka was stunning enough on its own.

But what really made it sizzle was Badgley Mischka’s decision to place its couture sunwear on every single model on the catwalk:

This made for one of the most conspicuous displays of sunglasses in any major collection this year (and possibly in history), which of course makes us overjoyed, since we carry both the Badgley Mischka Couture Eyewear Collection and the very sunglass models featured in Amsterdam.

After more than a decade of silver dominating eyewear, it was also refreshing to Badgley Mischka pair gold sunwear with their spring/summer fashions.

White gold made a showing as well, but the emphasis was definitely on yellow, which perfectly complimented the warm browns, bronzes and golds in the Amsterdam collection.

Badgley Mischka and Sama deserve much of the credit for reviving the aviator style sunglass and making it chic and fashionable again.

The Perry with 22k gold lenses (which is repeatedly featured in the Amsterdam show) is a favorite of Angelina Jolie and other celebs and recently made an appearance in Rhianna’s So Hard video.

According to Brian Glascow of Sama Eyewear, the sunglass designs featured in the Badgley Mischka Amsterdam collection were custom made by Sama with special couture lenses especially for the show.

Out of this concept was the birth of the 22k and 18k gold lenses that are available as a premium couture option on select Badgley Mischka frames like the Boyd and Perry.

While aviators have been slowly making a comeback for the better part of two years, there really hasn’t been an ultra-premium, couture alternative to the classic Ray-Ban until Badgley Mischka and Sheila Vance of Sama introduced the 22k gold version of the Perry and Boyd sunglasses.

The Amsterdam show from Badgley Mischka also shows how versatile the aviator truly is (once you lux it up a bit.)

Notice how effortlessly the gold Badgley Mischka sunglasses move from formal wear, to flirty summer dresses, to swimwear.

There’s a reason that certain designs in eyewear become “classics” and the Badgley Mischka Spring/Summer collection clearly demonstrates the enduring appeal of the metal aviator.

The Badgley Mischka Eyewear models featured in the Amsterdam collection include: Perry, Boyd, Alfie, Corset, Bradley, Grant (Optical Frame) and the Marilyn.

Tomorrow we’ll post the second half of the Amsterdam show, which pairs these fantastic sunglasses up with beach and swimwear designs from the Badgley Mischka summer 2010 collection.

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We decided to celebrate the arrival of Spring by throwing a cocktail party at Urban Optiques.

But this isn’t just any cocktail party. While the  martinis, champagne and hors d’œuvres might be tempting enough on their own, the real centerpiece of the event will be the fabulous FRED-Paris Eyewear we’ll be featuring.

One of the world’s most coveted luxury eyewear brands, the FRED eyewear line features finishes in five microns of 22K  gold, platinum and palladium combined with diamonds, rubies, gems and temples inlaid with precious materials like iguana, exotic woods and buffalo horn.

FRED is rivaled only by Cartier for it’s jewelry-grade craftsmanship and quality.

Designed and produced by the legendary Paris jeweler FRED, each piece of  optical jewelry is meticulously-crafted by hand and takes seven days to create.

Many of the designs are inspired by pieces in the FRED jewelry collection, and styles range from sophisticated and elegant to chic and trendy.  Many of our clients will give the gift of FRED eyewear to others (and often themselves) for  special occasions or events where they might normally choose jewelry: anniversaries, birthdays, a promotion, or a daughter’s graduation from college.

Urban Optiques has partnered up with Deborah Signorello of Premiere Vision, the U.S. distributor of the FRED-Paris Luxury Eyewear Collection, to host an exclusive event showcasing the entire FRED collection.

This includes all of the FRED sunglass and eyeglass models (including different finish and material variations) as well as frames from the FRED Prestige Line, which combines diamonds, pearls and gemstones with precious metals and exotic woods.  Eyewear from the Prestige line can even be custom-designed to create a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry.

The Prestige line is truly optical jewelry at its finest and many of the pieces that Deborah will be presenting during the cocktail party are not normally part of our standard FRED collection at Urban Optiques.

This is a rare chance to view and try on some of the finest luxury eyewear produced on the planet.

The “Springtime in Paris” FRED Cocktail Party will be held Saturday, March 27th from 4 pm to 7 pm at Urban Optiques at 105 MainCentre in downtown Northville.

All guests who attend will be registered for a chance to win a pair of FRED PEARLS sunglasses and the first 20 people who RSVP and then attend the party will receive exclusive, complimentary Goodie Bags.

All guests will also receive a one-night-only discount on any purchase of FRED eyeglass frames or sunglasses.

Complimentary cocktails and hors d’œuvreswill also be provided.

The guest list will be limited, so RSVP online early to ensure your reservation.

For more information, please contact us at 248-347-9090 or RSVP online here.

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.

We set it to a ‘60 French pop soundtrack to give it a little bit of that retro/vintage vibe that we all love so much around Urban Optiques.

We’re pretty happy with how it came out.

We’ve been featuring third-party video content on the Urban Optiques website as well as on our Fan page on Facebook for a while now, but we really wanted to start producing our own video content.

If a picture can tell a thousand words, then we figured a video can tell 10,000.

Because our product is very visual, anything we can do to make it more real and accessible to our clients and patients is a good thing. We’re really excited about how video can bring our unique eyewear and client experience to life, as well as educate patients on vision care and ocular health.

Tomorrow, we’ll debut Urban Optiques new commercial on Optiques TV, so be sure to check back.  It’s very cool.

Ideas for future videos are always welcome.

Look for upcoming pieces on Optiques TV featuring celebrity eyewear, sunglasses in movies,  and an educational piece of why you should never buy glasses without anti-reflective coating.

We’re also hoping to feature some of our patients and clients in their new eyewear, so if you are naturally drawn to the camera, let us know. We’d love to make you the star of our next feature!

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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.

The TF 5116 is a round acetate frame with a thick temple that honestly won’t work on everyone. But if you do have a face that it meshes with, it’s an awesome eyeglass — especially for someone who wants to make a bold statement with their eyewear.

It’s less trendy than it is unique, in the same way that genuine vintage eyewear can express individuality and still not look so edgy that it hurts.

While this is officially a men’s eyeglass frame,  it can work on women as well.

If you have the right facial structure, this frame can be amazing. It’s actually a very classic design, and depending on what you wear with it, it will either look down-to-business (with a suit) or funky (with jeans and a leather coat.)

It is available in four different colors, including brown, slate, black and tortoise.

With the right face and personal style, the TF 5116 will bring you compliments, wealth and confidence.

Yes, this frame could change your life.

Well, maybe not your life (although there is always that chance), but definitely your look.