Tapping into the true eyewear fashion market has been a long-term goal for Transitions and with its new Style Colours portfolio of lenses, it may just have cracked it.
Four new colours – amethyst, sapphire, emerald and amber – join the existing hues of grey, brown and graphite green. The range of colours brings additional options at the dispensing stage, as the patient can either look to complement to contrast with the chosen frame.
With light tints very much on-trend at the moment, the lenses have been released at just the perfect time. Optician opted for the shimmering sapphire version, or simply put, blue. The lenses were glazed into a matte sandalwood Arne frame by Salt Optics and I went looking for the sun.
Mid-June’s heatwave was the perfect time to try the lenses. High UV levels meant the extreme end of the photochromic reaction was easy to achieve. In its strongest state, the lens lost some of its blue colouration and was, in my opinion, a little too dark and had a tinge of grey – something the graphite green also displayed. It would be interesting to try the light shades of amber and emerald to see how they look at their full tints.
Other light levels brought out the best in the lens, which took on the look of a 35% or 50% tint. This was the sweet spot for me, with a tint that replicates the colourations so popular at moment.
Darken and fade back times were comparable to the lens photochromic I tried, Signature VII. I’m always conscious of walking into the office and sitting at my desk with what is effectively a sunglass, but the impressive fade back meant this wasn’t so much of an issue.
Photochromic lens companies have always strived to appeal to a more youthful patient demographic, but barriers of aesthetics and cost have tended to be the traditional barriers. With Style Colours, Transitions made significant inroads into making looks less of an issue. More so than previous Transitions lenses, the new range has enough eyewear fashion credibility to work in a wide range of frames. Traditionally, large frames with deep eye shapes worked better with the greys and brown, but the new hues will look good even in small silhouettes.
The highest praise I can give the Style Colours lenses is that I haven’t worn another pair of glasses for over a month.