Style Rut: My Aviator Shades Rut

I believe I have a problem at this point, ever since I lost my black wayfarers, I have been wearing nothing but aviators, I have two pairs of silver rimmed ones, one pair of reflective ones (yuck) and two pairs of golf rimmed ones, seriously, they almost look identical, but to me beyond the lenses and the frame colour they are worlds different - seeing them both lying next to each other on my desk today just made me realise i might be stuck in an aviator shades rut, and I need to rectify this pronto. So after work, I shall go shopping for a different style of shades.

Wayfarers: Most Popular Vintage Style

One style enjoying a pronounced renaissance right now is the Ray Ban ‘Wayfarer’, which dates from 1952 when their design was a revolutionary break from the metal eyewear of the past. If you’re looking for the sunglasses Audrey Hepburn wore in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, look no further – they were Wayfarers in a tortiseshell pattern. Though they were originally marketed to pilots, they were popularized by Kim Novak and Marilyn Monroe, and went on to enjoy favor with countless celebrities through the 1960’s and 1970’s. In the 1980’s, Tom Cruise re-popularized them in the movie ‘Risky Business’.If you’re looking for ‘Buddy Holly’ glasses, those are also the Wayfarer style, but in black with clear lenses, worn as regular eyeglasses instead of sunglasses. Since late 2009 these style has been repopularized, in Cape Town alone, every reasonably conscious indivual seems to possess at least one pair of Wayfarers, they also come in a wide variety of seriously funky colours. I believe in classics so my pair is a simple black one.

L'Ormarins Queen's Plate 2010

The Saturday of the 9th of January 2010, the Cape Town's social scene rose to South Africa's most prestigious annual horse-racing event, the 149th running of the L'Ormarins Queen's Plate. The fabulous event was held at Kenilworth race course, which had been transformed into a setting where haute couture fashion, vintage cars, fine wine and the country's greatest thoroughbreds took centre stage. The event is largely if not solely sponosored by the L'Ormarins Wine Farm, part of the Rupert Family's wine estates. I was very reluctant to go mainly because of my near non-existant interest in horse racing, but after being offered free tickets by 3 different people, on the 3rd count which was ont he very morning of the event, I agreed, only if i could arrive at 4pm, because I had a lunch i couldnt cancel. The event has started at 11am, so 4pm was the best time for me to arrive. The dress code is very strict, blue and white, no excpetions. This was exciting to me, I'm someone who enjoys dressing to a theme - especially a very literal one like that, because it sort of gives you a canvas of blue and white, which everyone will have conformed to, now the test is, what kind blue do you have on, and how have you played with the accessories, *giggles* - anyway that Saturday was one of the hottest days in CT so I knew anything formal was out of the picture - so I wore white(crisp white) skinny jeans, black belt, stone wash blue shirt with a white collar - and to bring in some pizzazz, my trusty black patent leather shoes by Coxx Borba I bought in Paris in 2007, which i believe was a whole season before everyone started buying patent leathetr shoes like mad *grin* - I had inteded to wear my wayfarers shades but forgot to change shades before leaving the car (The aviators are better for driving) so I ended up wearing gold aviators, which I was very bleak about until I saw the pictures, and they didnt look too bad :P then i was happy again. The highlight of the event for me was how well dressed and the effort the guys had made to look very chic, not all of them were formally dressed which was great and the various interpretations of the theme were awesome, some guy was in white shorts and the best blue and white stripped shirt I've ever seen, there is no way to describe how cool his outfit looked, and he had on Ray Ban wayfarers with a red trim, was was incredibly quirky against the preppy overall look. Later int he afternoon after the last race, after i betted, my first time, and lost, ah well, the concert started, Gangs Of Instumentals, Just Jinjer & Goldfish performed, to have danced the night away....cant wait for next year as I'm def going, willingly this time around, it was too festive to miss.