The glasses, which include specialized eyewear brands such as Alain Mikli and Kirk Originals, are worn for effect, said the 44-year-old marketing director for designer eyewear store seen@dempsey.
Ironically, Sharon added, now that her myopia measures an almost-negligible 100 degrees, her range of eyewear choices has grown.
She had been limited to glasses with small frames because the lenses used to correct her myopia, at 700 degrees, would look too thick in bigger frames.
With a laugh, she said: "The glasses I used to wear weren't things I wanted to be seen in!"
Like Sharon, a growing number of Singaporeans are seeing eyewear as fashion accessories, rather than just tools that help them see clearly.
Niche stores such as seen@dempsey and The Optique have emerged in recent years, and the older ones--such as Eye Place and The Eye Site--report a growing interest in design-driven eyewear.
Specialized eyewear brands generally offer quirkier styles than their mainstream counterparts. Spectacles are manufactured in smaller quantities and sometimes hand-made. They may also use unconventional materials such as carbon fibre.
Colin Teo, who co-founded Eye Place in 1994, said : "Customers have become better-informed and pickier. There are many specialised designer brands available now, compared to when I started in the eyewear business 20 years ago, when there were only a couple."
Such changes have not gone unnoticed by renowned eyewear designer Alain Mikli, whose designs have been sold here for 15 years.
In an email interview, the French designer said: "Singapore used to be quite a conservative market, (where we mostly sold) metal frames in traditional shapes, but it has evolved to become a market for many different sorts of designs, such as bright, colorful acetate frames. Singaporeans now also welcome innovations in eyewear, in terms of materials, technology and crafting."
With the options available these days, eyewear afionacados are almost guaranteed to find glasses that suit their tastes, as well as their outfits.
There are no hard and fast rules to finding a perfect pair--or pairs.
For instance, while most customers seek out spectacles that best complement their appearnace, said The Eye Site's marketing manager Desiree Koh, one of her customers wanted her glasses to "clash with her face as much as possible".
The customer, a fashion stylist, buys about 15 pairs a year.
Said Desiree: "She tells me, 'The more they clash, the more people will notice them. If not, what am I wearing frames for?"
Today Living, February 20-21, 2010
Lynette Koh
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