Refreshing My Look

I've been wanting to do something new with my 'look' lately, and haven't really felt up for a new haircut or anything that bold. Instead, I went with a new pair of specs, which is pretty much the safest way to reboot your image, since you can just take them off. At the same time, a bold new pair of glasses will inject your style with a completely new edge.

Now, even with good vision insurance, new glasses tend to be pretty damn expensive. Fortunately, the trend that's taking over the apparel industry of cutting out the middle-man, taking everything in-house, and offering products at minimal markup costs has hit optics as well. Warby Parker has quick become one of my favorite eyewear designers, with classic 'bookish' styles as well as bold modern frames, and the best part is they manufacture and retail their products themselves. This lets them offer all of their frames (with prescription lenses included) at a steal of $95. 

You've all seen my glasses before, clocking in with a smaller, rectangular shape. I decided to grab two pairs, and tried to go for something that kept my aesthetic but added a fresh factor. For the first pair, I kept the same 'scale' for the frames...not much thicker, not much bigger on my face, but went for a rounder shape with the Preston frame.

Preston in Whiskey Tortoise | Warby Parker

I love the kind of 'professorial' look these frames lend, and I haven't had round frames in forever. Since the change of shape is a bit more up-front, I went with the subtler 'Whiskey Tortoise' color choice.

For the second pair, I kept the rectangular shape, but shook up the scale and went with something a bit bigger and bolder. The Beckett frames are slightly thicker than my own, but more noticeably are significantly taller.

Beckett in Striped Evergreen | Warby Parker

I think these are a great balance between a kind of vintage, Buddy Holly look and something more modern and up-to-date (especially with the 'Striped Evergreen' color choice).

My order went in yesterday, so they should be here soon! Check out the whole selection at Warby Parker, they have everything, acetate frames, metal frames, round, square, big, small, all at unbeatable prices. Fan-freakin-tastic customer service as well, which goes a long way for a Wide Eyes, Tight Wallets endorsement!

A Tip Of The Hat To...(or something less pretentious)

A goal of mine is to provide a series of reviews through this blog. There are a billion places to look for inspiration, but I’ve found it hard at times to find out how to make that inspiration happen. Half the time I’ll read a blog and think “Yes! You’re right, I should own a pair of classic khakis. What have I been thinking??” (true story. Somehow I don’t own a single pair of khakis) and then I’m slammed with the question of where, among all the thousands of khakis sold online, to turn. On top of that, I am horrible at making decisions on my own, so I love blog articles that tell me exactly what to buy. Here, I figure I’ll spread the love. Since I don’t have a gazillion dollars, my plan is to review things as I buy them (I’ll pick some old favorites that I already own to start things off), and will also sprinkle in reviews/recommendations of other blogs, people to follow on twitter, etc. I’ll also try to keep these short and to the point, which is not my strong suit (for that, I turn to this great navy wool suit I got from…just playing. I actually don’t even own a suit. Puns aren’t my forte either. Neither is figuring out how to put an accent on the e in forte. I digress).

Since I am writing this post from work (shhhh, don’t tell!) and didn’t plan ahead to pick something out/take pictures of anything before I left the house, I will do my first product review some other time, and today you will get my first blog review!

I’ll start with one of my favorites: The Style Girlfriend. Written by Megan Collins, this blog has gotten a lot of positive attention lately (it was featured in GQ in the fall). I love it for a few reasons. One is that Megan is great at providing specific examples for all of her recommendations. As I said before, a pet peeve is being given great style advice with no resources on how to make that happen. Megan constantly gives links to that great pair of Chukkas she’s featuring (StyleGF LOVES chukkas).

Another thing I love is that, as a girl writing about menswear, Megan gives a view that, while incredibly educated in the matter, comes from outside. Sometimes I find it hard to relate to all these blogs written by rich Italian men or experienced tailors or heirs to vast fortunes that seem to expect readers to have grown up in the world of men’s fashion. In this sense, Megan and her intern(s) write very applicable articles for readers who are just getting their footing and would probably feel pretentious using the word ‘sartorial’ on a daily basis.

Finally, it’s ALWAYS great to have a girl say you look good, so I love to follow Megan’s recommendations (go Chukkas!).

There’s lots else to love about her blog too, I definitely recommend it. You can read her articles at www.stylegirlfriend.com, follow her on Twitter (@StyleGF), and like her on Facebook too.