Status in the Shading Game

By Richard Stengel

A billion dollars in sales make sunglasses the essential accessory

Coool. That's right. "Capital C, triple o, l. Coool." That's how Robert Richard, 18, spells the statement his shades make as he saunters down Los Angeles' haute-funky Melrose Avenue. Perched on noses, plunked on heads and dangled on "leashes," sunglasses are making an endless number and variety of fashion statements this summer. Still an obligatory part of the rockstar, sport-star, and any would-be-star uniform, sunglasses are an essential accessory for almost everyone else. Sure, some people may use them just to keep out the glare. But not Louis Peralta, 19, of Galveston, Texas: "What can I say? Everybody has them." Explains Robert Marc, owner of a Manhattan sunglasses store: "It's what others see first. Here's something that sits in the middle of your face, and here's a fairly inexpensive way to change your whole look." Sunglasses have found their place in the sun, and shade.

Last year some 85 million of them were bought in the U.S. for about $900 million. This year (no sunnier than last) the market will grow by 25%, adding up to more than a billion dollars. Never before has there been such a phantasmagoria of shapes, sizes, colors and prices: python, polka-dotted and zebra frames, champagne, vermilion and espresso-colored lenses, asymmetric cat's-eyes and jewelry-bedizened sun helmets that cost thousands of dollars. If price is the object, the glittering Optica shop in Beverly Hills has a pair for $35,000. Foster Grant, the largest U.S. manufacturer of popularly priced sunglasses, offers more than 100 styles. Bausch & Lomb, the patriarch of quality shade makers, has at least 200 styles to select from. And people are not shy about choosing. Amanda Brown Olmstead, head of an advertising agency in Atlanta, has nine pairs, which she stores with her jewelry: "I change my glasses just as I change my earrings. What I wear depends on my mood that day and the colors I wear."

This summer, what is considered "fashion forward" looks backward. The name of the frame game is "retro," and the chicest styles recall the '50s and early '60s. The hip grandfather of the look is the Ray-Ban Wayfarer. The dark, clunky, squarish shades with a street-tough elegance evoke the likes of Buddy Holly and James Dean, and are as much a talisman of the '50s as white socks and penny loafers. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd wore them in the movie The Blues Brothers, and in Terms of Endearment Jack Nicholson seemed to have Wayfarers grafted onto his face. They became a mass pop phenomenon when Tom Cruise hid himself behind a pair in Risky Business in 1983. As a result, says Paul Brickman, the movie's writerdirector, kids are buying attitude, a "street-bad kind of look." In 1981 Bausch & Lomb produced 18,000 Wayfarers. This year the company expects to sell 600,000. Notes Gai Gherardi, co-owner of Los Angeles' posh 1.a. Eyeworks: "When a kid comes in here, he's buying that '50s mystique, that uniform. If he wants to be cool, he'll buy a Wayfarer."

"Nerdy-cool" could be Melrose Avenue argot for the latest addition to sunglass paraphernalia. An accessory's accessory, "leashes" are colored pieces of string or cord attached to the earpieces to prevent shades from falling off. Once an accouterment for sensible librarians and accountants, leashes became stylish after assorted surfers and TV Hunk Tom Selleck put their shades on ropes. Leashes come in as many colors as the glasses they adorn, but cost only a few dollars. Several manufacturers, such as Foster Grant and Opti-Ray, are offering them already attached to the glasses. Says Dow Solari, 35, an electrician from Galveston who wears sunglasses with a leash: "My grandmother had a strap like this on her glasses so she wouldn't lose them."

What some people want from their sunglasses is not style but status. Glasses to be seen in, not to see with. The sturdy Vuarnet, once a favorite with athletes like Jean-Claude Killy and hard-core surfers in California, is now a symbol of conspicuous leisure. Notes a Dallas sunglasses retailer: "You'd be surprised at how many people--especially high school kids--are willing to shell out $70 to $100 for a pair of status sunglasses. I've heard of kids coming in and counting out their last pennies to buy a pair of Vuarnets." The price of prestige can be ruinous, as ostentatious shades have become a tantalizing target for urban muggers.

Some sunglasses manufacturers seem intent on turning the eyeglass frame into a work of art. Carrera Porsches, designed with the help of the West German auto company, have 14-karat gold-plated frames with interchangeable lenses. The name is stamped on the lens and temple as if it were an artist's signature. Each pair has its own serial number, which turns the glasses into collector's items.

The makers even keep a list of Carrera Porsche owners, a kind of Debrett's of day darkeners. The latest name frame is the Christina [De Lorean] Ferrare, which starts at $265. For the insatiable collector, Ferrare offers a limited edition of 100 pairs that are signed and numbered the way lithographs are.

What is inside the frame is not outside the vagaries of fashion. Lenses are as changeable as frames. Three of the most popular are the gradients, mono-chromatics (the best for the eyes) and photochromies, which get darker in the sunlight. Last year's fad is this year's faux pas: for those in the know, heavily mirrored sunglasses are not only alienating but out.

So if eyes are the windows of the soul, why are people pulling shades over them? Sunglasses impart a double message: concealment is coupled with conspicuousness, and the mask of self-effacement is also self-advertisement. Like those traditional accessories of mystery, the veil and the fan, sunglasses beckon and deflect, suggesting the power of impenetrability while subtly inviting intimacy. Notes Dr. Frank Newell, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Chicago: "There are a lot of reasons other than eye protection that people wear sunglasses. People Like to conceal their eyes and what they're looking at." Sunglasses offer protection from prying eyes and the opportunity to pry at will. Says Atlanta Attorney James Barnett: "I like the fact that you can see people, and they can't see you. You're looking out from within, and no one can follow your eyes."

But the reason most people wear them is usually not so subtle. Fun, not sun, is the answer. Why does Miami Secretary Natalie Di Martino, 19, wear a pair of red heart-shaped glasses with tiny yellow circles painted on them? Says she gleefully: "It's me!" --By Richard Stengel.

With reporting by Dorothy Ferenbaugh, Deborah Kaplan