Don’t get all medically righteous on me but I’m about to make a point on fashion and style trends in eyewear and if you think that sort of thing is frivolous … you’re wrong.

So here’s the set-up anecdote. I’m in Florence on a work-related assignment (I know… it’s a tough job but somebody has to do it) and the company I’m profiling has graciously provided a driver to meet me at the airport. He is in his mid-50s with the expert ability to literally glide his stick-shift Mercedes effortlessly through the complex and crowded back alleys of Italy’s most medieval-meets-renaissance city.

He’s wearing a crisp blue dress shirt, a black knit tie, a waxed-cotton Belstaff Trailmaster motorcycle jacket and a pair of sharp rectangular black metal frames featuring that twin-piece temple design most recently pioneered by L’Amy… mainly for women but certainly available for men as well. I’m not sure what particular brand this driver was wearing but the look is totally modern, extremely manly and easily a prediction of what the well-dressed American consumer might be wearing… two or three years from now.
This driver reeked of style. I’m sure he just KNOWS what works for him. There is certainly nothing unisex about his glasses. I’m not sure what the Italian word for unisex is but I sure wouldn’t say it around him.

That unisex trend is probably the singularly most prominent reason for eyeglass dispensing falling flat just a few years ago when baby boomers hit the optimum age for eyewear and the market responded with stretched oval frames in diminished facial dimensions that had the appeal of belly button lint.

So here we are with a plethora of second chances. This mag just spent the last year trumpeting the amazing new eyewear styles available for modern men. And now we have a women’s eyewear issue cover devoted to a groundbreaking P3 style from the new Lucky Brand eyewear collection inspired by some of the recent soaring styles in men’s frames. Don’t miss the opti-opportunity here again. Eyewear is hot with style these days. Yes, your mission is to deliver the benefits of vision correction but if you are blind to the need for eyewear complementing a person’s lifestyle as well you are lost. And THAT is a trend you don’t want to embrace.