It’s easy to get all worked up about an aviator if you’re an eyewear nut, BUT it’s not always easy articulating what makes that particular aviator special. First you have to consider if it tampers with the classic shape in a way that doesn’t throw the whole style off kilter to the point where it’s actually NOT really an aviator. Then you have to be concerned with the relationship of the bridge and the brow bar, not to mention the materials of those bars and their own identity and shape. And there’s the nosepads. If they aren’t flesh-colored, what DO they look like? And feel like? Do they have a design on them? Does the design on them coordinate in any way with the designs on the temples? Do the temples play a connection with the face-front that reinforces the message of the aviator style? Are there tips involved and do those tips have any keynote to complete the branding identity? Do the temples touch on any aspect of the bridge?

See! Complicated isn’t it? The layers of engagement can be virtually limitless. And yet they have to be controlled…by the wearer AND by the brand. I need a rest. A peaceful place I can go where I’m free to be just me with my sunglasses, some leather (there ALWAYS needs to be some leather!), a Zen-zone where no one and no thing can bother me except a giant wallop of music hitting my gut, my gander and my inner guru. ALL of that is easily and simply and extremely luxuriously notched up by this month’s Frame-of-the-Month: the LION TOO from Shamballa Eyewear. Thank you Larry Sands. You just made our month gloriously rich and worthwhile. It was terrific spending some time with this amazing work of face art.

—James J. Spina