freep.com
September 13, 2008
Palin's specs ignite a run on eyewear
BY GEORGEA KOVANIS
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Whether you think they're high fashion or rose-colored, the glasses -- Kawasaki model 704 with lens SP 51-- worn by Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin have captured a lot of attention.
"It's kind of surprising," says Bill Koppin, owner of Shades Optical in Birmingham. The store has the $375 titanium frames on order and due in today. "We rarely get any calls about a specific frame on a specific person." But, he adds, "We're getting a couple calls a day. That's unusual."
Bart VanderVelde, national sales manager of Los Angeles-based Italee Optics, which distributes the frames in the United States -- locally, they're also available at Steven Franklin Optics in West Bloomfield -- says it's a dream come true for his company.
"To have (Palin) doing 30 minutes in front of 38 million people" at the GOP national convention, which was televised around the world, "doesn't hurt when all they show is her face."
Interest in the rimless frames is so intense that the Japanese company that makes them has added extra shifts to meet the demand. Production at the plant is taking place 24 hours a day, VanderVelde says.
"I would love to wear them," said Julie Ho, who is 63 and lives in Bloomfield Hills. She was at Steven Franklin Optics on Friday to get her own gold wire rim glasses adjusted but became smitten with the Palin glasses and will consider them next time she wants new ones because the rimless frames don't obscure her face. "Our beauty is in our face," she said.
Beth Lieberman, who is 39, lives in West Bloomfield and wears rimless glasses with a more rounded lens, looked at the Palin glasses on display in the Steven Franklin window. "I would try those on," she said. She finds the rimless style and the geometric cut of the lenses quite attractive.
But before you buy, beware.
Rectangular lenses like the ones Palin wears look best on people with oval-shaped faces.
"If you have a really squared-off jaw and a really rectangle-type face, a rectangle frame really makes it look more rectangular," says Koppin.
"Just because it's Palin's style, doesn't necessarily mean it's your style. ... We don't want it to be another Sally Jessy situation -- people wearing red glasses who shouldn't wear red glasses."
Linda Anton Olshefsky, 46, of Royal Oak, who switches between contact lenses and glasses, doesn't think the glasses look that great on Palin.
"I think they make her look matronly," she says. "The way she wears her hair up with the glasses, she looks like a librarian. I guess that's the look you want to have if you're going to be vice president."
Still, with all the talk about the Kawasaki 704s and the SP (for Sarah Palin) 51 lens, we couldn't help but wonder ... what would some local celebrities look like in the glasses?
? Click here to see our image gallery of how some famous faces might look wearing Palin's specs.
Contact GEORGEA KOVANIS at 313-222-6842 or gkovanis@freepress.com.
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