September 2008

This spring, designer eyewear company L.A. Eyeworks brought out an ad featuring a Greg Gorman photo of Paul Reubens—better known as Pee-wee Herman. In the photo, the timeless, fresh-faced Reubens is wearing big, round-bottomed glasses. Their chunky look fits perfectly into some of the season’s biggest trends: geek chic and bold colours.

So, is this really the new face of the baby boom generation?

Yes and no. Yes, guys are buying more glasses that smack of the Buddy Holly look—the sort of frames that we’ve seen in recent years on the faces of offbeat celebrities such as Cory Doctorow or Stephen Page. And no, not really. It turns out that the photo was taken back in 1983, featuring one of their first frames. The designers were thrilled to see that their early fashions are coming back.

“Indeed, the customer base that fuelled the early success of l.a. Eyeworks was the baby boomers when they were in their 20s,” says Barbara McReynolds, who designs frames with partner Gai Gherardi. “So it’s incredible to us that the frame designs that propelled our business then are being eagerly embraced by the early echo boom generation today. While demographics don’t drive our design proposals, there is a curious and delightful symmetry to it all.”

The baby boomers are in their 50s now. They’re still the demographic every marketer wants, since they’re fairly affluent and have a reputation for spending money on themselves to a greater degree than their parents’ generation. But it’s no longer the generation that is driving fashion trends. So it should come as no surprise that style trends popular with the boom echo generation are also popular with the boomers.

While boomers want to be fashionable, they are increasingly influenced by the style choices of their children, says Mike Christiansen, the Edmonton-based designer of Venus Eye Design. As a result, they’re choosing bolder frames with brighter colours, perhaps also influenced by European fashions as they become a generation of traveling empty-nesters.

“They’re wanting the newest trends,” he says. “But they want a unique piece that makes a statement.” That is, they want to stand out in a crowd, but still look trendy.

For many, that statement comes from colour, and for Christiansen, popular tones include tangerine, lime, a broad range of purples and turquoise for women. Men are also moving away from standard neutrals, but on men’s frames the brighter colours tend to be used as accents. They might appear on the inside of the frame, or on the temple tip. Red is proving a hot seller on Venus Eye Design’s men’s frames, along with purples and yellows. Also, instead of standard neutrals, we’re seeing base colours such as chocolate brown, and combinations such as steel blue with orange accents.

Colour is “one of the biggest stories” of the year, agrees Mark Ginsberg, senior vice-president of designer brands at Marchon. “The customer really embraced the idea of stepping out.” Neutrals still dominate, but there’s a bit more creativity among buyers. For the baby boom generation, he points to his Michael Kors and Fendi collections, in which turquoise and reds are selling well.

Traditional patterns are also being shaken up a bit. Tortoiseshell is still popular, but with new variations, such as zebra stripe, speckles or laminated tortoise with colours. “We do a lot more to add pops of colour,” he says.

While colour may be the “big story,” perhaps a bigger one is the economy. With the collapsing U.S. economy and softening in Canada, the forecast is for a shift from luxury to value. In recent years, the big growth area for frames has been the luxury segment. Companies like Cartier have enjoyed a population—particularly a baby boom population—with high levels of disposable income, an increased focus on fashion, and a willingness to spend money to look and feel good.

However, that trend has changed. Luxury is not expected to grow this year, and may even shrink. The big growth area is expected in the medium-high category, where one can find plenty of big fashion brands and lots of innovative frames from emerging designers.

“They’re looking for something that has a price–value relationship and also looking for brands,” says Ginsberg.

In this market, that could mean an increased emphasis on branded merchandise. A big brand name provides the purchaser with a certain level of confidence that they’re buying quality frames.

Branding isn’t always subtle. In some cases, showing off that you can afford a designer brand is kind of the point—hence the big logo treatments on the temples. Sometimes a more subtle touch is warranted, especially on ophthalmic frames. In 2008, the focus was on metal plaques and decorative hinges, says Ginsberg. In 2009, “the customer is expecting an evolution, and it’s going to be more subtle. It’s not going to be the big, bold. If it’s there, it has to be functional.”

As a result, we’ll see more work on branding and hinges and relevant hardware. Designs will, however, continue to be influenced by other accessories, such as the hardware on handbags.

And why shouldn’t a pair of frames be a fashion statement? These days, people choose to wear eyeglasses.

“If a boomer is wearing a frame, they’ve decided against laser surgery or contact lenses, or to use frames as a fashion statement,” says Linda Mulford-Hum, director of product development at Centennial Optical.

She echoes the sentiment that women’s frames are “all about individuality” right now. “If there isn’t something unique or different about the frame, it just isn’t considered,” she says. That might mean thicker, bolder, more colourful temples, strong patterns or textures, or other design features. Boldness is still an easier sell on the temples, but more and more people are going for glasses that are interesting on the front, perhaps with brighter colours or two-tone looks.

“For men, the strong trend is chunky plastic and geek chic,” she says. “It’s not a new trend, but the niche is really boomer men.”

In Centennial’s collections, this trend is well represented in the Roots line, which features those oversized, chunky frames with thicker plastic and a vintage look. Another variant is a thick, plastic temple with vintage trim and a flat metal front “to give some of the feel without so much of the geek.”

Basically, boomers still don’t like the idea that they’re getting old. So if they have to wear glasses, they’re going to look for ways to make it fun and young.

And designers can rejoice, for this demographic is also turning out to be sun-savvy. After all, designers love sunglasses because people will spend money on a much wilder design for suns than they will for specs.

“Rx is huge,” says Mulford-Hum. “People aren’t going with clips anymore. They’re buying expensive frames to make Rx sunglasses.”

And outside the prescription range, suns are big again, with a preponderance of large, laminated women’s sunglasses that are “big and glamorous,” says Ginsberg. The suns are rounder, and we’re also seeing more shields and wraps again. Metal is also making a comeback, after years of focus on plastics. Likewise, prescription suns are getting bigger again.

Back in the prescription world, the geek chic trend is evidence of one other trend: the decline of the rectangle. For years, everything has been some kind of modified rectangle. Hard lines and sharp edges ruled the roost. No more.

This is the year that softer shapes are coming back. Witness the rounded shapes on those geek chic frames. This year, look for more P3s and a general softening of lines as designers begin a shift toward having ovals in the dominant position again. For women, this also means that cat-eye shapes are moving back into a more prominent place in fashion.

There will likely be regional variations on what sells well in Canada. The continued economic boom in the West, driven by oil, will mean a focus on wilder fashions and more multiple pairs there.

This is a dramatic change. Alberta and Saskatchewan used to be the stuffy, conservative provinces when it came to fashion. Now, for example, Christiansen says he sells more funky colours in BC, Saskatchewan and Alberta than he does in the East. It’s been a fast change, he says, and one that’s only come about in the last two or three years. That’s likely a result of the high level of disposable income that’s become the norm on the Prairies since the oil boom began. Boom times are good times, but Albertans have always known that booms are followed closely by busts. This time, however, spending patterns seem to have changed, thanks to the longevity of the current oil boom.

Only Quebec is more fashion-forward these days, he says. But Quebec always leads the way. “The more wild colour the better in Quebec,” he says.

Where isn’t wild colour dominating? If anywhere, it’s in Ontario, with its recent spate of high-profile layoffs. Perhaps people are looking for frames that will stay in fashion a little longer, given the economic uncertainty.

But for boomers this year, the focus will be on a bit more boldness and frames with a bit more character. Although there will be a shift to a slightly lower price point, with an increased emphasis on value, that won’t be at the expense of style. This is still a generation that likes to look good, a generation that is recognizing frames as fashion accessories, and a generation that has a bit of disposable income. And they know what they want to spend it on. •