Shielding our baby blues from the sun’s harsh rays is a necessary means to protect our cornea and fight off crow’s feet, but with the abundance of choices, styles and cost, how do we know which to purchase? Celebrity endorsed sunglasses are all the rage with stars like Nicole Richie, LiLo and Kanye making designer sunglasses seem like a summer year round must have. But celebrities change sunglasses as often as us normal ‘ol folk change our underwear, and in this economy, the average Josephine likely can’t keep up. With sunglasses ranging from $100 like Kanye’s popularized Supers (left), pushing $450 for Tom Fords worn by the likes of Angelina Jolie and her hot hubbie to $1500 (I mean, srsly? There are starving children in the world!) for these Louis Vuitton’s (right), we’re afraid we can’t keep up.
    
And luckily, we don’t have to. Celebrities require constant shades as they successfully hide a variety of things: weed smoking, dark circles, no make up, hangover, mean looks, etc. We need our sunglasses to serve a function, albeit a fashionable function, and since we aren’t constantly being photographed, an abundance of designer sunglasses isn’t really necessary. However, if we aim to actually protect our eyes, at least one good expensive pair probably is.

A good pair of UVA and UVB protectorate sunglasses are necessary when you are out in the sun for an extended period of time - lounging at the beach all day or skiing in the Alps. Polarized lenses mean that the lenses reduce glare by blocking intense, reflected light.  Unfortunately, few brands of sunglasses come with polarized lenses. That costs extra people. And even more unfortunately, cheaper sunglasses (Top Shop, H&M, etc.) come with lenses that cannot be replaced with polarized lenses. So, if you aim to truly protect your eyes, you have to buy nicer sunglasses independent of what celebrities are doing.

But for bopping around town shopping, especially if you have on hat or are lunching in the shade, that trendy pair from Top Shop will work just fine at at as low as $4, you can afford to match a pair with every outfit.

Emma Dinzebach

Strolling down East 20th I ducked into Trixie & Peanut, New York’s decade-old frontrunner in luxury pup apparel. While browsing the puppy apparel in the flagship store, and a distinct, embarrassing memory flashed in my mind. I first happened upon Trixie & Peanut on a nice weekend afternoon several years ago while strolling around the neighborhood with my then boyfriend and new shiba inu pup, Mia. In the mood to splurge, I mulled over the collars, slipping onto my wrist those in the running. After much deliberating and debating, my boyfriend and pup were becoming impatient, so we agreed to come back after lunch.

Around the corner we picked up sandwiches and went to eat them in Madison Square Park. As I unwrapped my sandwich and held it up to take the first bite, I noticed a pink and green camouflage ring around my arm, now dangling towards my shoulder. “Oh my god!” I gasped. “What?” my boyfriend asked, curious at my unexpected surprise.

“I stole a collar,” I said holding up my hand to reveal the collar still looped around my arm.

“Yes you did,” he concurred, laughing.

“What am I going to do?” I asked, embarrassed by the thought of going back to the high-end dog boutique and confessing my accidental sin.

“We’ll decide after we eat. I mean, maybe Mia was meant to have a free collar.”

I picked at my sandwich and dangled the collar between my fingers, admiring it’s glimmer in the sun. I put it against Mia’s orange and white neck. “Maybe it’s a sign that I was supposed to buy this one,” I suggested to my boyfriend who shrugged in response, indicating he had no intention of returning the collar. Mia, seeing mommy twirling the collar like a glittery baton, began to reach her nose for it letting out a small wimper. “Oh, she likes it!” I said naively. I unfastened the collar and put it around her neck. That, my friends, was the kiss of death.

Trixie & Peanut’s overpriced dog clothes, collars and beds served as the perfect excuse, according to said boyfriend, to keep the collar. This medium-sized dog collar was 47 bones. Um, pun intended. But it was my careless indecisiveness that caused accidental robbery. What to do? I mulled over it the moral dilemma, which seemed liked a no brainer to my man who finally convinced me that we would spend plenty of money at Trixie & Peanut in Mia’s life and the least they could do was give us a free collar that some ten-year-old in Taiwan probably sewed. Looking back, I can’t believe my choice. I should have returned it, but I was three or four years more immature than I am now and to ashamed to admit my mistake to the chic staff at T&P. Eventually, I donated the collar to Animal Haven, hoping my heaps of donations would in some way counterbalance my bad karma.
So this week, as I browsed the collar rack, I reminded myself that I owed them a sale and searched for something to purchase. To my surprise, all of the collars I searched were around $20. What happened to the expensive collars? I thought. Turns out I was in the sale section (hence the “sale” sign, duh). But I can assure you that on my innagural trip to Trixie & Peanut there was no such section. (Thanks recession!) In fact, Trixie & Peanut has deals on more than just collars. They have dog beds, pleather and space-style silver raincoats, Hawaiian print leaves, argyle sweaters and more on sale now. So for a little more than the price of the collar I stole (I added to account for inflation), I purchased three items instead of one. You can visit your website www.trixieandpeanut.com to see for yourself, but my recommendation, visit the store. Just make sure you check yourself before you exit.

Trixie & Peanut  23 East 20th between Broadway and Park  212.358.0881