Large black sunglasses with golden jeweled arms

Black sunglasses with a gold-tone plate along each temple

Start with the part you cannot see in a shop mirror. On the outer face of each temple, level with the hinge, sits a long gold-tone plate. Its border is worked into small links, like a flattened length of chain, and inside that border sits a pavé of tiny blue-black stones, faceted and packed tight against one another. Seen from the other side, the same plate shows nothing but plain gold-tone metal: the setting exists on the outer face only. Past it the arm goes back to black.

Why the chain-link border changes how the stones read

The border is easy to dismiss as trim, and yet it does most of the work. It draws an outline round the pavé, so the stones stop reading as scattered glitter and start reading as one set piece with an edge to it. Take the border away and the same stones would spread and blur; keep it, and the eye reads a single ornament dropped into the temple. It also explains why the plate holds its shape in the profile photograph even when the light is flat.

Plain from the front, decorated from the side

Straight on there is almost nothing to report: a wide glossy black front, no browline detail, no contrast at the corners, and lenses in an even smoke grey with no gradient. The folded photograph and the open one both say the same thing, because both show the front. It is the profile and the three-quarter rear views that earn their place, since they are the only two where the full length of the plate is visible rather than foreshortened. Set against the other black frames sitting on the same shelf, this is the quietest head-on and one of the busiest sideways.

Hair decides how much of it shows

A plain black front will go with almost anything, so the real question is what happens around the gold. Hair pinned or pushed back leaves the temple clear and the plate does its job; hair loose over the temples covers it, and the pair reverts to a straightforward black frame. On this model your hairstyle counts for more than your outfit, which is worth knowing before you file it under understated. A clip or band that holds hair off the temples will change the pair more than any jacket can.

As for the gold itself, black next to gold-tone is a warm pairing rather than a bright one. Against an outfit already carrying metal it gets lost in the crowd; against something dark and plain it is the only thing doing any talking.