Photo by Lauren Lancaster for The New York TimesThis week in the
Thursday Styles, our favored
Critical Shopper Mike Albo focuses on a topic close to The Shophound's heart.Sunglasses.The Shophound loves sunglasses. We love them as much as shoes, sometimes more. In fact, we feel sorry for people who, like Mike, will only buy cheap sunglasses because they lose them all the time. We tried that, but we found we never wore the cheap ones because, well, they were cheap. We are spoiled. We can tell the difference, hence our unreasonable (and expensive) devotion to
Blinde and
Oliver Peoples. Mike visited
Selima Optique's main store on Broome Street in SoHo. Mike makes a big deal about the buzzer. We don't remember having to be buzzed in there, but that buzzer may simply be more a matter of convenience these days as opposed to security. In a small store, it allows the staff to turn away from the floor, when there are no customers, if necessary, without leaving it open to the potential shoplifter. It's more common that Mike might think, especially in neighborhoods that are about as "dangerous" as Madison Avenue.
Buzzers aside, what we like about Selima Salaun''s chainlet of eyewear shops is her smart merchandise mix
of well known brands and more obscure ones along with a well curated
collection of vintage frames and her own vintage-inspired private label
designs. The sunglass business has exploded lately, particularly in the
designer arena which has the effect of creating an accessible product
for people who love designer labels and at the same time diluting their
exclusivity with broad distribution. Somehow the
Prada brand seems less
precious when you can find it in so many Sunglass Huts, but for a designer, especially a young one, it can be an especially valuable source of licensing income, and it is becoming an expected component of developing a healthy luxury brand.
Balenciaga just signed an agreement with giant manufacturer
Safilo to produce their eyewear which should cause a frenzy in department stores as well as raise the price ceiling on the product category even higher.It is Selima's sense of fashion and ability to forecast trends that sets her apart from more homogenized sunglass retailers and department stores, who often seem to be offering 300 variations on the same aviator style - not that we don't like aviators. We love them. Albo writes,Going to Selima Optique is akin to visiting an independent bookstore or
fashion boutique that knows its customers and is sensitive not only to
what they want, but also to what they will want a year from now.Talking to Ms. Salaun and [manager Erik] Sacher provided a brief trend report:
The bug-eyed Nicole Richie/Paris Hilton shades are fading in
popularity; no one buys those one-piece mirrored J. Lo shields anymore;
and this summer the Ray-Ban Wayfarer style is back with a vengeance.Both
told me that the next big shape is the P3, a rounded scholarly frame
that looks as if it might be worn by the tragic lead in a Merchant
Ivory film. They are available here for $385 from the English opticians
Cutler and Gross, another of the few remaining independent brands.This couldn't be better news for the Shophound. We have retired our mirrored shields for now, but our Wayfarers are now vintage. If they were a person, they would be well past legal drinking age, reminiscing about when they were young, watching
Miami Vice. Scholarly vintage schoolboy frames? Got those too with round horn rims, from the days when Oliver Peoples meant retro-antique style spectacles. It's always good when you only have to go shopping in your closet to keep up to date, or in this case, your oversized shoebox full of every pair of sunglasses you have ever owned. In short, Mike learned what we already knew. Sunglasses are
Important, and when you invest in good ones, you don't lose them. Umbrellas on the other hand...
Critical Shopper: A Bright Future in Shades by Mike Albo (NYTimes)Previously: Employee Of The Week: Jordan Silver at Selima Optique
