Goo-Goo Eyes

In summer, a woman of a certain age's fancy turns to ... sunglasses! Now that summer is finally here and we are just two days past the longest day of the year, we are pulling out all the stops and going goo-goo eyed over sunglasses to block the glare and shade the eyes.

A while ago, we wandered into the Bond Street outpost of Selima Optique and were instantly enchanted. Initially lured in by the collection of vintage clothing in the front of the store (always good bait where we're concerned), we stayed to ooh and aaah not only over Selima's extensive collection of frames but also over her private collection of sunglasses spanning decades.

Selima Salaun is the creative vision behind Selima Optique, the trend-setting, luxury eyewear brand she founded. Selima believes your eyewear is a reflection of your look — the personality you project. She says your look is the mood you convey each and every day! For more about Selima and her boutiques, click here or go to http://www.selimaoptique.com.

Jean tried these vintage round tortoise and metal frames on for size.

Valerie was fascinated by these purple-pink round frames.

Jean went for the round black and white checked number.

These glasses have an intriguing additional half frame above the full frame, like a visual echo. They're almost mask-like.

These half and half frames caught Jean's eye. So to speak.

One drizzly Saturday, when we went to the Brooklyn flea market, we discovered another source of glasses. Valerie was the first to try these big round glasses that extended over the top of the frames. She's hatless because the large lenses clashed with her hat brim. The glasses won out for the picture, but were ultimately rejected because they couldn't play nicely with the hat.

Jean tried them too but decided they probably wouldn't work with her prescription lenses.

The black and white polka dots make an interesting contrast with the black and white stripes.

Since Jean wears prescription glasses, here are the frames in her current rotation: These are Jean's lucite Woodstock frames with her Varilux prescription.

These amber-colored frames are called Frieda by Illesteva. The frame ends half-way down the round lenses.

Jean is wearing her Missoni prescription sunglasses which feature black lace embedded in plastic.

And these are Jean's old stand-bys, her vintage Mod Oath frames by Revue with her Varilux lenses.

Valerie is still playing that glasses on/glasses off thing, going back and forth between readers and regular sunglasses. Big old pain in the neck. Don't ask. Pink glasses from France, spray painted in Tokyo around 1990.

These are the red version of the black polka-dotted glasses above. Can a girl wear too many polka dots at once?  Right around here is about the breaking point.

Valerie has some idea that Peggy Guggenheim would have approved of these glasses with cobras (with red ruby eyes - ok, red GLASS eyes).

These may have been copied from an old pair of Issey Miyakes.

Now, where's the sunblock?