If you chance on a Milanese, more likely than not you will find that they often come with a year-round mandatory tan.

Serious sun ray exposure is a must

(credit to weekends away: winter = ski, summers = beach bathing).

So, sunglasses are serious business in Italy.

Day or night, rain or shine glasses are worn on everyday people with a flamboyant confidence that we would usually expect to only find on veteran starlettes.

 

Miu Miu S/S 2013

Rasior Sunglasses

Miu Miu S/S 2014

50s-retro

Tom Ford

Tom Ford S/S 2011

Olivia Palermo in Elizabeth and James

Celine

 

Celine Papillion F/W 2013

Prada

 

Tom Ford’s “Anouk”

I agree, that yes, glasses can instantly make anyone look much more alluring, and superstar-I-need-downtime-from-my-fans-mysterious , but in my case as I am hopeless at taking myself too seriously in the glamour department, my eyepieces need to come with a twist – something kookie and vintage is my call. For me Tom Ford‘s Anouk cat’s eyes do the trick.

Something Even More Edgy

 

Tom Ford ‘Nikita’ Cat Eye glasses, S/S 2010 eyewear campaign

Tom Ford ‘s NICO from the SILMO 2009 collection

OPTICAL CONTOURS THROUGH TIME The cat’s eye shape first became popular in the 1950s and 1960s, before this it was all about the bug-eye glasses of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.

From Left: Marilyn Monroe, 1967 in Bug Eyes; Audrey Hepburn style icon immortalizing the Cat Eye style; Dame Edna(Barry)Still refusing to let go of this enduring style

When Audrey Hepburn‘s used of the “cat’s” in the 1961 her film Breakfast at Tiffany’s the new trend started.

Suddenly they were seen on everyone, from Marilyn Monroe, Barbara Windsor, Dinah Manoff, Mary Whitehouse, Amy Lame, and then much later, Barry Humphries. Dame Edna (Barry) Still refusing to let go of this enduring style

The upturned comma at the edge became a seminal look for Dame Edna. She faithfully continues to make this eye glass shape part of her signature style. Tom Ford realised that he had stuck gold with this feline shape, so he has continued with the Cats Eye, playing and evolving its shape.