Personal by Design
Fashion Feature
Today's frame designs promote individual expression and creativity
By Amy Spiezio
Individuality is a message that resonates throughout today's culture. Instead of working in a generic office, people are working at home. Instead of one-size-fits-all, people are seeking bespoke products from their tricked out iPads and Droids with deeply personal app selections to their custom-designed body art.
Instead of a frame style creating identity, today's eyewear is more harmonious with individuality. The looks act as a supporting cast, letting each wearer be their own style star.
TOP TRENDS
The latest direction in the frame market keeps things simple with eyes on the trends and developments of the present and future as well as the comfort of the past's most enduring shapes.
CLEAN LINES: Whether it's the constant cacophony of media input or the hectic schedule of life, consumers are seeking refuge from external anarchy by opting for simplicity in their own space.
Architectural styles in eyewear with temples that focus on comfort and wrapping sleekly around the head take a lead role, while excessive design details fade away.
TONED-DOWN LOGOS: Where big-name brands used to scream from the temples of eyewear, now they speak in a more subtle way, and iconography or small and simple text suffices.
STORY TELLERS: That's not to say the eyewear has become bereft of design and pattern, but these details have more meaning and backstory from environmental messages to inside jokes.
HISTORIC DETAILS: Eyewear also continues to look back as it moves forward. Cats-eyes, P3s, and other iconic shapes are revisited and updated with color and high-tech materials. FB
KEYS TO HAPPINESSAs if constantly blending the mix of fashion and medicine into the perfect recipe for dispensing success wasn't tough enough—eyecare professionals also have to serve as a counselor to the patients, trying to find out just what will make them happy.In a recent New York Times article, "But Will It Make You Happy?" by Stephanie Rosenbloom, a growing trend is examined. One of the article's subjects slowly honed her worldly possessions down to under 100 items, underlining the movement of the United States' market away from conspicuous consumption. The bright spot: if you can make a purchase an experience—provide interaction and a story behind the eyewear you sell—people will still buy, and think it's money well spent. |
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