Chic Shades: Investing in an Identity

As the weather heats up, the search begins for cool shades.

Finding the perfect pair of sunglasses has little to do with proper eye protection and a lot to do with style. In a study of sunglasses, Consumer Reports found $2 models to be just as effective at blocking out ultraviolet light that can lead to cataracts as designer pairs costing $200.

Yet people will pay up to $500 for sunglasses because they’re investing in an identity.

Customers will come into the glossy interiors of the Optical Shop of Aspen asking for the same pair of sunglasses worn by the likes of Tom Cruise, Meg Ryan or Sylvester Stallone.

“And we’d better know which ones they’re talking about,” says Robert Fishman, an optician for an upscale eye wear shop in Newport Center Fashion Island.

Slip on a pair of Vaurnets or Porsches, and you’re that suave character on the movie screen, the pampered rock star who simply must find refuge from a devouring public, the mysterious secret agent man. Mike Tyson wears $300 Cazals. For the money, a wimp with no biceps can feel he has something in common with the ex-champ.

“Sunglasses make a statement. That’s why people want them,” says Kathy Sherwood, manager of Sun Shade Optique in the Westminster Mall. “You can get a pair of good quality sunglasses for $60, but people want to set themselves apart. It’s a signature item.”

A blond, 20-ish woman and her male friend wander into the shop and linger over the designer sunglasses encased in glass.

She asks to see a pair by Laura Biagiotti, the ones with a gold-tone matte finish that sell for about $230, and slides them onto her nose.

“Don’t you already have a pair just like those?” her friend asks.

“Yes, but I want these, too,” she says, still looking longingly at her reflection.

More than any other accessory, sunglasses have the power to reflect an aura of sophistication on ordinary people.

“We like to say that glasses are the fashion and clothes are the accessories,” says Heather Adams, manager of l.a. Eyeworks in Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza. “You can make a look or break it” with sunglasses.

Choose a style, choose a personality.

The hot new looks vary dramatically. Frames are smaller than the owlish styles of the ‘70s, but from there, “anything goes,” Adams says.

One can go for the full, wrap-around shields with a mirrored or “flash” finish that make the wearer look like a cross between a welder and a “Star Wars” extra, or small, round lenses on delicate wire frames that give even those with the IQ of an Irish setter an air of intellectual chic.

One can find frames dipped in 24-karat gold, such as the aviator-style Porsche Carreras, available for $240 at Sun Shade Optique, or studded with rhinestones, such as the elegant black shades by Emmanuelle Khanh for $153.

Frames come adorned in all kinds of material, including chrome, copper, snakeskin, mock tortoise shell, imitation marble and plastic in day-glo colors for the sporty set.

A pair by Kansai features miniature Empire State buildings etched in metal and set in translucent plastic along the temples, available for $250 at the Optical Shop of Aspen.

There’s ample room for artistic expression on the narrow rims of sunglasses.

Last year, former pro motorcycle racer Jim Rosa of Santa Ana Heights grew bored with his neon-colored shades. So he spattered the frames with bright paint.

Soon he was splattering paint on sunglasses worn by his friends and co-workers at a motorcycle shop. A distributor for Oakley, a manufacturer of goggles and sunglasses, spotted Rosa’s shades at the shop and wanted more. Rosa now paints sunglasses made by several manufacturers. His spattered shades can be found in Orange County at Nordstrom in South Coast Plaza, Newport Sunglasses in Costa Mesa and Sun Shade Optique.

“People are going crazy over them,” Rosa says. The son of an artist, Rosa has turned painting sunglasses into a full-time job.

While Rosa’s frames remind one of sun and surf, vintage-style frames conjure up visions of a cluttered, comfortable old study overloaded with books.

Oliver Peoples has some of the hottest vintage styles going, with mock tortoise frames, etched metal nose bridges, thin wire temples and smaller, rounder lenses. Ken Schwartz and Larry Leight co-founded the Los Angeles-based company four years ago, after acquiring old frames, instruments, cases and books from the estate of the late optician Oliver Peoples.

“We were always enamored with the past and the way craftsmen made things,” Schwartz says.

The pair sold many of Peoples’ 1,500 frames and, as the business took off, they began designing their own 1920s-style frames. A child-sized model sells for $269 at the Optical Shop of Aspen.

Schwartz says people want a pair of Oliver Peoples because they “give a better sense of a person’s character.”

“Ours aren’t trendy--they’re timeless,” he says. “They don’t have the luminous temples and the glow-at-night fronts. They have a feel of history and tradition.”

If Oliver Peoples makes frames that look old-fashioned, others make sunglasses that look ahead of the times.

Gaultier has designed a high-tech chrome model with springs on the temples, bolts at the hinges, and funky flat round lenses, available for $279 at the Optical Shop of Aspen.

Like junior physicists, sunglass promoters love to toss around words like polycarbonate, graphite, titanium and ergonomic design, in part to justify those big price tags.

Here’s what you should focus on when buying sunglasses, according to Consumer Reports:

* Lenses are usually made of glass or polycarbonate plastic. Glass lenses are heavier, and cheaper glass lenses can distort what you see. If you buy polycarbonate lenses, look for ones with scratch-resistant coatings. Also check the lenses for scratches before you buy.

* Use your eyes to judge how much visible light comes through the lens. The magazine favored gray-colored lenses because they alter one’s view the least. Lens color can be embedded in the lens or a coating, including the mirrored finishes known as “flash.” Such coatings are easily scratched unless protected with a scratch-resistant layer.

* Check frames for sturdiness. Try them on to make sure they’re comfortable and fit snugly.

* Although all of the sunglasses the magazine tested provided good protection against ultraviolet light, those wanting maximum UV protection should buy glasses labeled “absorbs UV up to 400 nm,” meaning complete absorption of UV rays.