All Eyes on Eyewear

Another season of New York Fashion Week has come and gone, and no matter how crazy the weeks are and how much I run around I always find myself sad about having to come back down to earth in the weeks following one of my favorite events of the year.

This year I was lucky enough to cover both Men’s and Women’s Fashion Week for the entire duration, which is basically 10 days, around 20 outfit changes, countless shows, and endlessly entertaining after parties. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been able to attend shows every day of Fashion Week, mainly because of my schedule, but seeing the week start with men’s and closing it out with some of the biggest names in fashion in general really reminded how much I love this world and why I’m so interested in fashion.

Currently, I’m back in the business world at my full-time job as a consultant, but I have so much content I want to share and so many things I have to say about what trends I saw. This blog post specifically is all about eyewear! Easily one of the biggest trends on the runway this year, as well as one of my favorite ways to finish off a look. I was lucky enough to partner exclusively with Eyecessorize as an eyewear partner for the entire week! They provided me with 5 pairs of glasses, 3 sunglasses and 2 prescription pairs of glasses, to keep me stylish and add the ideal finishing touch to each of my many outfits this week. I’m excited to not only talk about what I wore, but to focus on the sick pairs of glasses I wore throughout the week because in reality, you can never have TOO many pairs of glasses!

The first pair I am featuring, in the first photo of this post and the one above, are from the French brand Vuarnet. This brand is extremely well known and has a deep history and tradition for excellence. I was ecstatic to incorporate them into this more street style outfit of mine. The glasses are white, feature mirrored lenses, and have a great silhouette to them! This outfit consists of my go-to pair of leather pants (everyone has one of those right?) from Zara, a shirt from a recent collab with Vastros, which provided a great pop of color, one of the most fun new jackets I’ve gotten from Boohoo Man, and one of the most beautifully made pair of boots I’ve ever had from Aesthete.

The glasses made this outfit for a few reasons. First, it picked up the small hints of white present in the pattern of the shirt and acted as a great complement. Second, it also was another extra pop of color besides the shirt. Third, this pair specifically fits more of the street vibe that I was going for on the day.

I’ve linked Vuarnet’s Instagram page so that you can check out the rest of their styles. They’ve got a really great mixture of glasses that are super stylish but also super functional because that’s such a large part of their heritage as a brand.

So I rocked that last pair on my way to the shows, but now we are switching to later that day. Same outfit, different pair, and extremely different circumstances.

To preface, my vision has sadly declined since I started working as a consultant full-time. I blame staring at a computer screen for 10+ hours a day but what can you do? But I guess I’ll find the silver lining in this and say that a whole new dimension has been added to my style game since I can now add actual glasses (i.e. reading glasses/prescription glasses) to my look. I kind of love it personally. Wearing glasses really has the ability to transform my look, make me look older in some cases, and in the business world actually make me look like I’m some brilliant consultant that will change the game for your business (or at least that’s what I think in my mind).

I definitely can wear my glasses while I’m attending shows, however, I’m not allowed to wear them while I’m walking in a show. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t rock them while I am backstage in hair and make-up! I wanted to see everything clearly so I donned this great pair of frames from ic! berlin so that I could get the full experience of the backstage madness that I’ve missed so much!

Honestly, I’m low key obsessed with this brand, their mission statement, the quality of their products, and the edgy designs that they so often produce.

This pair is admittedly one of their more classic pieces, but of course these frames are still made with all the quality standards that are synonymous with the brand. One of the key features that I have to mention is that all their glasses are constructed without screws. Now initially, you might be saying, “Ok that’s cool but why does it matter?” Honestly, I was probably in that boat too, but then I actually held and wore the product and the most noticeable difference to me is the weight. They feel like they weigh nothing in your hand and on your face they’re so light it almost feels like you’re not even wearing glasses, which I personally love.

We will now move forward to a new day, a new outfit, and of course a new pair of sunglasses! I didn’t spend everyday of Fashion Week backstage and in shows (thank goodness because that would truly have been exhausting). I was lucky enough to reunite with old friends, make some amazing new ones, and attend a ton of different events, parties, openings, etc.

The one photographed above was a kick-off party for the first day of #NYFW (women’s) with Papyrus! Mimosas were had, canapes were eaten, and naturally boomerangs were created! And there’s no better accessory for a boomerang than a great pair of sunglasses.

This day’s outfit consisted of another pair of glasses from ic! berlin, however, this time it was an edgy pair of sunnies.

When I saw this pair from Eyecessorize I knew I had to have them because it was like they were made to go with the look photographed above! I was kind of going for steampunk vibes with this outfit, which consisted of a really really cool asymmetrical leather jacket from one of Zara’s collab collections and a pair of custom tuxedo pants from Suitopia in this bold dragon inspired print in gold, and the glasses really helped me to achieve the look. Not to mention that the temples of the glasses were also gold and the frames and lenses were black, which basically mirrored what was going on with my outfit.

The street style photographers went crazy for this look and the glasses were perfect for hiding my eyes since I wasn’t entirely sure which person I was supposed to be looking at. Not to mention that those lights in the front row at these shows can get pretty bright, so ic! berlin definitely had my back to keeping my peepers well shaded!

Once again, you can check out their sick Instagram feed to be inspired by their craftsmanship!

Continuing along with my little eyewear recap, we come to a more typical Joseph look that is all about classic style injected with fun little differentiators. In this case I chose a subtle, yet still fun, checkered blazer and decided that I wanted to accent the purple tones in the pattern with lilac accessories. This blazer, as well as the pants I wore with it, are from Suit Supply and tie/pocket square are both from Sprezza Box!

The pair that I chose to accessorize with for this outfit is from Kenmark Eyewear with a pair that is specifically from their Zac Posencollection. The thing that I love about this pair is that they’re just like me, classic with a bit of an edge. The shape and structure of the frames are pretty classic and not too wild, however, they are kept relevant and interesting by the two tone pattern of the design, which is a mixture of tortoise (huge in eyewear recently) and a solid beige color.

I also happened to wear this pair on another day and to a La Croix, everyone’s favorite beverage recently, after party! Got photographed on the red carpet in these bad boy’s on my way into the party. Again, a great way to shield yourself from the flashes of the cameras! This also brings me to another great point about these glasses, their versatility. The two outfits I wore these sunnies with are pretty different, in terms of colors, patterns, etc. However, this pair easily transitioned from one to the other and still looked wonderful with both looks! That’s one of the key things you should look for in any pair of frames you get, their versatility and how well they can fit into your wardrobe.

Don’t forget to take a look at their Instagram feed and explore the other styles they have available!

Now with all that, I am brought to my last pair of glasses that I’m featuring in this post! Sad I know but these are one of my personal favorites!

The last pair I am featuring are spectacles from Mondottica, and even more specifically SPINE.

I’m a huge fan of these glasses for a couple of reasons. First, is most importantly the look! They went great with this tweed blazer and really fed into the British Literature professor vibes I was going for. The frames in general I think have a sophistication to them, which is what I try to incorporate into my overarching style and I see myself using them constantly while I’m at work, which is a huge plus. Second, is the technology that backs these glasses. As I mentioned, this pair if by SPINE and the glasses have a grip technology that gently holds on to your face, however, when you take them off the spring closed in the most efficient of ways!

Find Mondottica’spage linked because you honestly should check them out!

That concludes my eyewear feature, and I want to close this post by saying a huge thank you to Eyecessorize for really making sure I was stylishly prepared for the whole of Fashion Week!

I highly recommend checking out their website, Eyecessorize.com, and exploring the most recent eyewear trends and tips, because life is too short to wear a boring pair of frames!

And of course they’re worth checking out on Insta as well!

JRL