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.
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.
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.