Over 50? Frame your face with colorful eyewear

 

I couldn’t wait to stop in and talk to Nancy Billings Revis owner of Uber Optics in Petaluma two Saturdays back. I had to share with her my personal “color” transformation moment plus a client story that involved colored frames. She’s been tutoring me about colorful frames and I think I’m really getting it!

 

Color, the super hero of eyewear

We’d just gotten through that stretch of over 100 degree days. I’d been wearing my matte black frames with transition lenses for several days in a row. The weather changed and so did my mood. I got up in the morning and decided to switch out my glasses. I reached for my blue L.A. Eyeworks frames, the ones Nancy had insisted I needed last winter.

I pulled them out of their case, cleaned the lenses, slipped them on, took a look in the mirror and went, “Whoa!” I caught myself by surprise! The blue frames were so refreshing. They looked lighter (I felt lighter); they looked fun (I felt fun). Bring on the day! I was ready for it!

An hour later I met up with Erin, my trusty assistant, and we headed over to a client’s home to do some closet work. We’d recently helped her pick out some eyewear in Mill Valley, close to where she lives. I wish I had a photo to show you, but I don’t. See if you can imagine this: The frame is quite delicate like her bone structure and facial features. It has an upsweep at the temples. Although the frame itself is neutral–kind of a greenish, brownish color, similar to her hazel eye color–it has a very thin lining just inside the frame that is a bright shade of blue. When she puts them on, that thin blue line acts like a neon lit sign, flashing: Here I am, open for communication! I’m interesting! Come talk to me!

This closet visit would be the first time I’d seen her wearing the frames since her prescription had been filled.

I was thrilled! They achieved exactly what I wanted them to; they brought attention to her face, made her look animated, refreshed, inviting. They made it easy to appreciate her beauty.

 

Seeing color for my client

This client is somewhere in her seventies. I can’t retain the number because when she tells me, it doesn’t compute. I had suggested she change her frames when she let her hair go silvery white. Her previous frames were not friendly to her overall coloring. They weren’t adding anything. They were helping her see but the right frames should do so much more than that!

When we were at the optometrist’s office, she was more than a little surprised at the frames I picked out. They were nothing she expected. I knew that would be the case and that’s why I had really wanted to be with her when she shopped for new frames. “Try these on, just for fun,” I said. I knew I was taking her out of her comfort zone but when I took her outside the doctor’s office with a hand mirror so she could look at herself in natural light, she really got it. She may not have understood what made them so great, but she saw the effect and liked it.

 

 

My own color freak out

I think this must be one of the biggest surprises to a woman over 50–that wearing a frame with color can be so flattering. I think when we get older and our faces change, we’re shy about bringing attention to them with our glasses. We might think they’ll bring more attention to wrinkles, fine lines, a less full eyelash line or a thinning brow. But this is one of those counterintuitive style tips: The opposite can happen.

I remember vividly standing in Nancy’s studio when she insisted my next frames should have color.

“You need color!” Nancy said.

“I don’t know…,” I said.

Color? Scary! So intentional! So attention-getting!

But she’d caught me at a weak moment. My world was upside down. I heard myself say, “Okay, let’s try it.”

Even when I went to pick them up a week or two later, I was still unsure.

Not any more!

 

More reasons to choose color

When I shared my blue frame stories with Nancy, she was satisfied. And then she piled on another great tip. Besides helping a woman look younger, revitalized and vibrant, “Adding a frame with color is like putting makeup on without putting on makeup. All you need is lipstick and colored frames,” she said.

Brilliant! And so true! I know first hand that when I put on my blue frames, I’ll add my Bobbi Brown Hot Orange lipstick color and that might be it. Well, I’ll moisturize and fill in my eyebrow line but I might not worry about doing the rest of my makeup routine. Color carries the day!

I want to share more Nancy wisdom with you. I pressed her for more tips for women over 50 who are choosing new eyewear. (Are you 39-years-old? Don’t feel left out. You’ll be able to apply these tips to your situation, too!)

You’ll hear the rest of the conversation in tomorrow’s post. Stay tuned!

 

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