Island Style
Summer trends for sunglasses

By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer

Leonard Wong, left, models Maui Jims' Wailea, with an ultra-light titanium frame; $249 at the Sunglass Hut. Renee Hampton's stylish sunglasses are a unisexdesign Christian Dior calls "Trailer Park." $300 at Christian Dior Ala Moana. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Trendy looks pair chunky plastics with rimless frames and brightly colored lenses. Tortoise shell frames, a throwback to the '60s, are back, big-time.

Two-tone tints, with double gradients such as blue on top and pink on the bottom or green on top and orange on the bottom, are selling well in Hawai'i, according to the Eyeglass Shoppe.

Traci Carvalho of the Sunglass Hut reports their biggest sellers are Maui Jims' beta titanium frames that are as light as a paper clip. Oakleys also are selling well, especially the mirror-look emerald iridium lenses.

If designer fashions appeal to your aesthetic sensibilities, but not to your wallet, a pair of sunglasses is a way to afford a designer item without blowing your budget. It seems every designer has come out with a line of sunglasses: Armani, Prada, Ferragamo, Gucci, Dior, Tommy Hilfiger, Chanel and Kate Spade among them.

Of course you can always find the looks for less. But you want to make sure you don't sacrifice safety and quality.

With the boom in outdoor sports comes a plethora of performance-oriented sunglasses. Many are lightweight, flexible and durable, featuring no-slip components such as temple grips and nose pads.

Polycarbonate plastic lenses are especially popular with outdoor athletes because they are 20 times more impact-resistant than glass. Polarized lenses are sought after for their ability to reduce glare produced on flat surfaces like water or a field of snow.

Gary Sprinkle, KITV anchorman and producer of "Pacific Adventures," is an avid outdoorsman who has looked far and wide for the perfect pair of sunglasses with the protection he needs. He stood by his Ray-Bans until he discovered

Oakleys. "They wrap around and protect a lot of the face," Sprinkle said. "They don't scratch, and even when I've had them in salt water they clean up nicely." His bronze lenses are made of polycarbonate.

The only downside, he said, is that they have a removable bridge that's easy to lose and each one costs $9 to replace. And, once the bridge is lost, the glasses are unwearable until you buy a new one.

Carvalho said different-colored lenses are suitable for different environments:

At the beach or for outdoor sports, the best choice is a lens color that reduces glare and improves contrast by filtering out blue light — brown and amber are ideal.

Yellow lenses offer excellent depth perception and contrast in low light and therefore are recommended for shooting, skiing and fast-reaction sports.

Rose and vermilion provide perception in low-light conditions while allowing a tolerable level of light transmission in bright sunlight. They are helpful in contrasting objects against blue and green backgrounds.

Green lenses are good general purpose lenses as they provide contrast in low light and reduce eyestrain in bright light.

Gray is also a good all-purpose color because colors pass through gray lenses evenly, allowing true perception and the least amount of color distortion. They also protect against glare.

Style savvy

It's hard to select sunglasses by yourself. It's an item that is best chosen with a trusted friend who will be honest.

Strict guidelines seldom apply across the board. It's rather like the old-fashioned "seasons" approach to dressing that limited what colors you should wear based strictly on the primary colors present in your skin and hair.

However, master stylist Frederic Fekkai, who will introduce a new line of sunglasses in September in conjunction with Parisian optical designer Selima, said, "I believe sunglasses should be practical but fun and certainly flattering. The frame should enhance your bone structure and play with your hairline. That's what makes them charming and sexy and casually elegant."

His general guidelines for hair color and frames are:

• Dark brown hair: warm tortoise shell, black (or a combination of both), and violet-blue or gray-blue.
• Red hair: verveine (pale green) mixed with tortoise shell or black with a lining of fiery orange (tres chic, he said).
• Blond: soft, pale apricot.

His take on lenses? "Now, the mood of fashion is very fun, very '70s, almost psychedelic, and bright lenses go with this. Also, the lighter lenses show off the strong eye makeup and long false eyelashes that are so popular now."

Framing the face

Carvalho said the Sunglass Hut recommends frame size be in proportion with face size. In other words, smaller frames are better for smaller faces.

However the frame shape should be the opposite of the shape of the face.

• Oval face: any frame shape works. Square shaped frames with gently rounded edges and higher temples are one shape to try.
• Round: Choose wider frames with angular styles. Select frames that make the face appear longer and thinner. Look for frames slightly wider than the broadest part of your face. Minimize curves and add definition with soft, angular styles. Higher temples will help create a longer look.
• Heart: Light colors and rimless styles help minimize the upper portion of the face. Choose frames no wider than the forehead, angling outward at the bottom corners.
• Square: To reduce the angles use soft, curvy styles that give the face some definition. Higher temples or cat eyes (slanting upward) will lengthen the face. Classic ovals are a good choice.
• Triangle: Soften the lower portion of the face by accentuating the eye area. Shapes with a straight top line or cat eyes with high temples work as long as the top is wide enough to balance the jawline. Frames can be top-heavy and angled inward at the bottom. Metal frames with rimless bottoms also are worth a try.
• Oblong: Widen and shorten the face with styles that don't extend beyond the widest part of the face. Round and square shapes like the Annie Hall/John Lennon frames are suggested. Frames with short horizontal and long vertical lines also work. Decorative or contrasting temples add width.

Ophthalmologist suggests sunglasses year-round

By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer

Protecting our eyes is essential, especially in Hawai'i, where we need sunglasses all year.

Dr. George Plechaty, spokesman for the Hawai'i Ophthalmological Society, warned: We live near the equator where the dosage of light is higher than in other parts of the world, so our sensitivity is greater. Sunglasses are an appropriate and necessary form of protection.

Plechaty said he advises his patients to have their eyes tested for sun sensitivity, then to wear sunglasses as necessary.

Among the sun-related problems he sees in his offices are pingueculum and pterygium. They are most often seen in surfers, fishermen, lifeguards — those who spend many hours in the sun.

Pingueculum appear as little white bumps on the eye. They are usually located at the 9 a.m. or 3 p.m. positions on the cornea because these areas are less protected by the eyelids.

Pterygium look like a group of bumps or discolorations growing over the eye. They are due to degenerative changes caused by the UV rays of the sun.

Other eye problems that may have links to UV exposure are cataracts and macular degeneration.

Plechaty reported orange is a safe color for lenses. In a medical study, cataract patients reported improvements in color contrast when wearing orange lenses.

Key medical factors to keep in mind when selecting sunglasses include:

• Lenses should be dark enough to provide comfortable vision.

  Assuming the strong light conditions present most of the time in Hawai'i, a good rule of thumb is that the eyes should not be visible when looking into a mirror. (Unless, of course, the lenses are photochromatic, the kind that turn darker in sunlight.)

• Lenses should not affect color vision or traffic signal visibility.
• Lenses should be impact resistant. Polycarbonate plastic has the best impact resistance of all materials.
• Lenses should absorb at least 99 percent of UVA and UVB rays. Read the label to ensure the percentage.