Tinted lenses are a great way to liven up understated frames. Tints can also take frames with an already bold look and unleash imaginative possibilities. In the last installment, I discussed tinting specifically to add a modern flair to a beautiful vintage frame design, but this time, it’s all about the creativity that lens tinting provides.
As soon as I saw the Newton by Jacques Marie Mage, I knew it was a perfect canvas for some of the craziest tint I could imagine. Inspired by disco-pop superstar Olivia Newton-John and the aviator eyewear from the early 1980s, the Newton in the Silverfox colorway features an amazing seafoam enamel-coated top bar, accented with bright silver titanium and translucent acetate. It’s a knockout even before a custom tint is added. This design may look a little outside of what you’d expect from Jerome, the Jaques Marie Mage designer. He develops a small batch of sunwear for his Vanguard collection, which brings unpredictable shapes and colors. This allows him to flex his creativity while maintaining unparalleled quality. These pieces are highly sought after as typically, no more than 150 pieces of each color are produced.
Expressing Your Creativity with Tinted Lenses
Originally, this frame came with a solid slate gray tint. This provided a balanced and blended composition of clean hues present in the frame and accented the shiny silver details. However, I wanted to build the lenses in a way that highlighted the frame’s features in a more in-your-face approach. Harkening to some of my visual memories as an ’80s kid, I chose hot pink for the top of the lenses. The pink faded into a soft canary yellow at the bottom. Not only is the updated eyewear incredibly fun as a fashion accessory – actually looking through the colorful lenses provides its own enjoyable experience and brightens up the day! The key with this custom tint was getting the saturation just right. Since I chose two seemingly overpowering colors, I wanted to make sure they weren’t too dark. The color is intended to highlight the frame and my personal style, without becoming the star of the show.
Tinted lenses can do so much, not only for specific visual needs. They also make your eyewear as an extension of your personality. Check out the first post in our tinted lens series about how you can reinvent a frame through this process.
Bottom: Original lenses
