The optical press is awash with excitement and speculation about the great event of our post-summer calendar, the Paris exhibition that takes place every Autumn, allowing us the first glimpse of new looks for the upcoming year. All aspects of our industry showcase their new products there, but of course you don’t want to know about new geeky optician’s equipment of new lenses, you want to know about the previews of new fashions for 2012…..
Pre-show, and pre our aching feet and dehydration headaches, we pore over the first glimpses of what’s in store for us, to help us decide what stock to choose for you, our lucky customers. From this first sight of the new ranges we try to spot the trends which will work, for the man or woman in the street, and what will suit our eclectic, funky, streetwise British style.
Colours are still layered, with mixes of plastics that give you individual looks and plenty of choice for co-ordinating with your wardrobe. As we creep towards winter we’re currently fixated on darker shades, and luckily there’s plenty of black, tortoise and burgundy to keep us happy. Decoration for women’s frames is a little more chunky, with bold inlaid stones and even a Pandora charm inspired decoration on one new collection! For men it’s about geometric inscribed patterns, and in tune with vintage looks, more antique colour finishes.
Retro is still big, with cat’s eye shapes, seventies inspired aviators and the soon-to-be-seen everywhere tiny round eye. There are some interesting rimless for the first time in ages, with sides that are thin in profile but chunky against the face. Sides have all the detail here, with contrasting textures and patterns.
So it’s Paris here we come, and we’ll be interested to see if our predictions for the upcoming season are correct – watch this space after September!
