Oops. It’s happened once or twice before but I really goofed up doing my trendsetting and headline and deck for this issue’s Sunwear feature. I had it all done. I was satisfied with the headline also being used on the cover, and I’d even completed the trend we use for the cover caption on our contents pages.

We were expecting a visit from Jason Kirk (of Kirk & Kirk, always a “colorful” way to spend some time!) and I really wanted to get the document to Senior Associate Editor Victoria Garcia so she could work her magic with correct style names and numbers as well as tempering some of my esoteric puns, music and automotive references. I thought I hit “Save” but as the nearly blank page stared back at me when I went to check what I’d sent to her, it was obvious that I had some work cut out for myself… AGAIN.

But you know what? It’s OK since the process is one of numerous and always enriching steps. The whole procedure begins as we go through the 80-plus eyewear vendor parcels sent in for the variety of show issue shoots. As we pick the frames I make some mental notes based on impressions by the whole edit team AND Art Director Iris Johnson. Lots of frames get tried on. Associate Editor Jillian Urcelay is always on the prowl for a potential Frame of the Month and separate selections for Instagram, and that affects selected choices. And Victoria uses the review time to formulate her What’s Right Now feature.

When we move on to groupings for the on face photo shoots, there is a constant stream of opinions regarding quality, style, color, branding and pricing. And that dimension is part of determining what frames will be used in our still life photos and how those will be broken down into related trend groupings.

The next wave of “trend setting” occurs at the actual photo shoot where notes are jotted into the photo shoot notebook. By then I’ve usually begun editorial wording but the form and format is still loose. I also annotate recommended headlines and asides regarding frame fit and quality.

The next day I go through the shoot book and adjust recorded thoughts into the trend setting you experience on the photos in the feature.

Well this time I had to do that whole last step over again COMPLETELY. And although I don’t wish for it to happen ever again, it was self-enlightening to review each frame anew and note the depth of style and quality each offered. Most of each caption stayed the same since I had the shoot notes as a reference but the whole exercise truly reinforced the glory AND “the story” of this thing we might sometimes take for granted, this wonderful commodity of eyewear delivering style, grace, culture, the past, the future and… 20/20.

James J. Spina
Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]