\n<\/p>\n
Despite some people in the UK experiencing 40 consecutive days of rain this year, sales of sunglasses have not been dampened.<\/p>\n
Instead, the dark skies have ushered in a new era of eyewear: the non-sun sunglasses.<\/p>\n
The style comprises shield-style frames with barely-there tinted lenses. They look a bit like those goggles the dental hygienist asks you to pop on to avoid flying tartar, or the safety glasses worn by a government minister on a visit to a construction site.<\/p>\n
Created originally for long-distance runners and cyclists who want to protect their eyes from elements including the sun, sweat and flies, the high-performance eyewear is now being co-opted by everyone, including those who failed to finish that<\/em> couch to 5k programme.<\/p>\n <\/span>Harry Styles modelling Oakley\u2019s Cybr Zero glasses.<\/span> Photograph: Laura Jane Coulson<\/p>\n Selin Olmsted, an eyewear trend forecaster and design director, says there is a \u201chuge uptick\u201d for non-sun sunglasses \u201cwhere you can still see the eye\u201d. These types of glasses fall into \u201ccategory one\u201d eyewear, meaning they are designed to offer protection against harmful UV light specifically on overcast or cloudy days when many people think they do not need protection. Some versions feature photochromic lenses that change tint automatically depending on the level of light exposure. The trend also reflects how sunglasses have become a year-round accessory.<\/p>\n On the catwalk, brands including Celine featured giant rimless shades with charcoal- and honey-tinted lenses that looked similar to those you would find in the aisles of Decathlon. While the designer version costs \u00a3470, the French sporting giant\u2019s prices start at \u00a329.99. Marks & Spencer is also tapping into the trend. This week, it launched a \u00a320 pair of \u201csport sunglasses\u201d with a rust-coloured tint. On TikTok, gen Z have swapped their Charli xcx inspired blackout bug-eye shades for the Mamil go-to: wraparound cycling glasses. Elsewhere, the April issue of Runner\u2019s World magazine features the pop star Harry Styles musing on his sub-three-hour marathon time as he poses in vintage short-shorts and a pair of Oakley\u2019s rose-tinted Cybr Zero glasses.<\/p>\n Tapping into what Olmsted calls a wider \u201cfunctional luxury\u201d trend, she says the shield styles reflect how \u201cdifferent lifestyles are merging and blending into each other\u201d \u2013 in this case, the worlds of sport and fashion. \u201cDue to sociopolitical reasons, people are allocating more of their budget to their physical wellbeing. It helps them feel good in an unpredictable world. They are now investing in better-functioning gear such as eyewear that can optimise their performance but still looks good.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex Ellinport, the global product director at Oakley, is not surprised to see the 50-year-old brand now being co-opted by non-athletes. \u201cSeeing people wear Oakley simply because they appreciate the design feels like a natural extension of where those communities [fashion and sport] are heading and how those worlds are converging.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>The glasses are thought to be part of a \u2018functional luxury\u2019 trend.<\/span> Photograph: Laura Jane Coulson<\/p>\n Styles\u2019s glasses consist of a rimless construction and weigh about 22g. Ellinport describes them as \u201cnext to nothing\u201d glasses. Similar styles from specialist sportswear brands including District Vision and Kuro Athletics are also just as likely to be worn on the track as they are on the front row. The US brand Research Studio, which 3D-prints specialist glasses for endurance athletes, riffs on this with its tagline: \u201cAlso great for running.\u201d<\/p>\n Alongside eye protection, another big part of the appeal of non-sun sunglasses is that they are the type of glasses you can leave on indoors without looking like the type of person who wears sunglasses indoors. There is also a mood-boosting benefit. On gloomy days they can \u201cuplift someone\u2019s psychology\u201d, Olmsted says. \u201cYou pop them on in the morning and they still allow you to see everything clearly, but through a really lovely warm pink or earthy toned light. It just adds a nice start to the day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite some people in the UK experiencing 40 consecutive days of rain this year, sales of sunglasses have not been dampened. Instead, the dark skies have ushered in a new era of eyewear: the non-sun sunglasses. The style comprises shield-style frames with barely-there tinted lenses. They look a bit like those goggles the dental hygienist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[23628,4510,11351,9890,23626,23627,22425],"class_list":{"0":"post-46147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-accessory","9":"tag-fashion","10":"tag-fusion","11":"tag-mainstream","12":"tag-nonsun","13":"tag-sportfashion","14":"tag-sunglasses"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}