Transparent beige frame glasses

Butterfly sunglasses with a translucent beige frame

Seen face on with the arms open, the top edge lifts away from the bridge, follows the brow and finishes in a point above each temple: that is the butterfly line. Below it the rim curves back down towards the cheek. The lenses are graduated brown, dense along the brow line and almost clear by the time they reach the lower edge. The front is wide, the lens openings are wider than they are deep, and the beige stays pale enough to read as warm and see-through rather than as a block of colour. To place this outline against the other shapes, look at the frames whose upper edge lifts at the corners.

Nothing on this pair is fully opaque

Both the plastic and the tint let light through. Hold the pair up and you see the room behind it; fold the arms away and you see the arms themselves, sitting flat against the back of each lens. That is worth pointing out, because the decorative panel on a frame arm is normally something you only catch from the side, and on this pair it stays legible from the front. Even the tips are clear beige, so the arms never read as solid lines against the lens.

The same trim, seen four ways

Four observations from the photographs, in the order they become obvious:

• Folded and face on, each arm reads as a single diagonal line crossing behind its lens.
• Beside it, a short column of small round studs shows through the tint, dimmer but still countable.
• Open and face on, that column drops out of view: the outer corners of the front now cover it.
• In profile, the studs and the openwork triangle come back with nothing in front of them.

Detail at this scale only registers close up, which is equally true of the accessories that reward a closer look.