Never one to splurge on things I know will break, sunglasses and costume jewelry is designated to the realm of $30 and under. However, I think 2009 may be the year I feel comfortable and mature enough not to toss my sunglasses at the bottom of my purse in a subconscious attempt to trample them when I toss my purse on the floor. This means I think I’m ready to invest in a pair of sunglasses that will last me through the decades and various trends.
It might seem extremely obvious and trendy that I want to invest a bit of money in Ray-Bans, however the truth of the matter is, Ray-Ban has proven its staying power through out the ages and let’s not forget that they have managed to reinvigorate the trendiness of many of their iconic styles including the Wayfayers, Aviators, and Clubmaster.
Buying a pair of non-standard Wayfayers will not only mark the time in which I purchased them for posterity, but they will be great pieces to save for my children and grandchildren to play with and maybe even wear seriously when the trend comes back around. Plus, Wayfarers look really good on almost every face shape.
Which pair should I buy, the Wayfarer Skinnies priced at $129 or the Tonal Wayfarers costing $139?
I’m not going to lie, there are times when you could see me walking down the street, and you’d be 100% sure I was from Williamsburg. I’m a sucker for hipster trends, I even have a tendency of denying my attraction to arrow-skinny jeans, ironic tees, and over-sized glasses around people who scoff at the Williamsburg hipster (hipsters never claim to be hipsters). The goal of dressing like you’re from Cali but live in NYC can be fun when the entire world doesn’t do it, but American Apparel, a front-runner in supplying hipsters and the wannabes with all the leggings, hoodies, and tees they can handle, is exploiting this guilty pleasure of a fashion trend to the nth degree.
True, there are Am Aps everywhere, but now they aren’t only peddling crazy metallic leggings and mono-kinis, they are taking things a step farther and selling vintage items. So far they’ve started by putting vintage eyewear on their webstore, but they are taking the next step and creating a sister store called California Apparel. The first Cali Apparel will open in LA, but other stores are bound to pop-up around the US and the rest of the world.
Now, back to the vintage glasses on the webstore. I for one have a problem with them. As cute as the crazy, over-sized granny-gogs are, I am definitely not going to pay $50 for them. I get it, they’re vintage, but they are also novelty glasses (meaning no prescription lenses). There’s a little thing I like to call a drugstore. They sell over-sized glasses for cheap, pop the lenses out and voila! Where them at night, and no one will be able to tell, we did it in 2nd grade, trust me. Or even better, go ask your grand parents if they have any old sunglasses/glasses you can wear. Not only will those be vintage, but heirloom. As much as I may protest against the inevitable commercialization of the hipster, the fashion trend will flourish thanks to American Apparel, and the likes. You know what that means? Its time to find a new counterculture fashion trend, or maybe I’ll just rehash a different decade start my own!
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When I was in 6th, I wore the same pair of sunglasses almost everyday. They were small, pink sunnies with plastic frames and had rhinestones on the sides. I thought they were so hot and would wear them rain, snow, sleet, or shine (those are the four weather patterns in Mich, and sometimes all four happen in the same day). I pretty much had 3 different styles when it came to wearing them: on my face blocking those rays, strategically placed in in my hair as an accessory and nothing more, or as a headband keeping my hair out of my face. The funny thing is I just found them in a box about a month ago. That makes my 6th grade sunglasses the oldest pair of glasses I own (UV blocking or otherwise). (Un)fortunately, Chelsea of today is different than 6th grade Chelsea. I’m much more knowledgeable about important and unimportant things, I know what I want to do with my life (I think), my style has changed drastically, I have these great boobs that I for sure didn’t have before, and I can’t wear the same pair of sunglasses for a week much less an entire year.
Right now I only have the basic black and brown, but this is due to my friends an family instructing me to put in form of glasses or goggles back. I do however plan on getting more sunglasses, I just have to go shopping by myself. I want a pair of white, but they have to be the perfect shape for my face since they will stand out. I also want blue or purple, but the have to be almost black. But, since I can’t find the perfect white, blue, ore purple pair of sunglasses I’ve settle for finding the perfect pair of red sunglasses. I raked through digital heaps of sunglasses and found my favorites by everyone from Tom Ford to Betsey Johnson to Forever 21. My favorite are the Betsey Johnson pair because they are red and white. It kills two birds with on stone, well… it kills one and knocks the other on conscious. I also really like the Mare Jacobs aviators, but I don’t like how aviators look on my face. I think I just like them because Ashlee Simpson has them, and I usually like her style. I can’t really decide though, but you can click on the price of the sunnies that have you seeing red (in a “that’s red hot” way) to check them out!
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The other day I was driving to this super far mall with my siblings. It was a really nice day, and we had the windows down and were blaring the radio. (I know, so obnoxious.) Blythe and I are obsessed with Amy Winehouse. The obsession is pretty much because she laughs in the face of her problems, but I digress. “Rehab” came on the radio and we realized Jay-Z was in the background, so we turned it up louder. Apparently, he did a remix to Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab”. It was sort of amazing, and my siblings and I started talking about how much we respect Jay-Z. He doesn’t pigeon hole himself into solely being a rapper or even to solely represent black culture. We all decided if one of our children ever told us they wanted to be like 50 Cent we’d flip, but if they said they wanted to be like Jay-Z we’d totally be okay with it.
Since I’ve officially decided I really respect Jay-Z, I went on Rocawear.com to see what clothes I liked. Even though my style is not typically “urban”, I think there is a way to wear any of clothing line no matter the style and make it you. I figured jeans are always a good place to start with anyones wardrobe. I found a super cute pair of capri’s called the Roc Bling Capri. Ever since I saw SJP in her Bitten capri’s I’ve swooned over every pair of jean capris I’ve seen. I then decided to find a great top to go with the capris. I found two tops, and couldn’t make a desicion as to which I like better. The first is called the Thermal Roc Top and is super casual. I like the fun all over print, and its a hoodie. That pretty much covers all the bases of my perfect henley type top. The other top is a spagetti strap tank that can be dressed up or down. Its called the Dry Sun Tunic Top. I love the braided straps, and right now I’m totally obsessed with anything that has an empire waist. The fact that it also comes in teal with a white, brown and teal braid makes me even more stoked. To finish the look off I needed to find accessories. So I snooped some more and eventually laid eyes on super hot white peep-toe pumps and a pair of rad sunglasses. The best part of either outfit is I would feel completely comfortable wearing them.
I just got really excited. The brilliant peeps at Fred Flare have decided to make all of their sunglasses $9. I KNOW… This is a big deal and needs to go on PRC, oh wait… I’m thinking they got my subliminal wishful thinking vibe, since it’s kind of overcast in CT today and I’m pretty sure the weather isn’t that diffeent in NY. The weather isn’t going to hold me back though because but they’ve got really cutelicious sunglasses. They have losts of different types of sunglasses from whimsical heart shaped sunglasses to the classic but cool aviator. My faves are the Swan Lake sunglasses, I think I might just buy them.
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