Love your glares (Should I know you?)

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: The Ilori store in SoHo must be one of the only sunglass emporiums with a VIP room. Lounging there with a flute of Moët, nibbling dark chocolate, shoppers can ponder just the right accessory to create the allure that they are Somebodies.

Will these Tom Ford wood-and-steel aviators convince onlookers that my natural habitat is the red carpet? Will Ralph Lauren’s $350 shades suggest I have stepped off a yacht in Edgartown?

To see for themselves, shoppers can peer into six full-length mirrors around the store, the better to coordinate their eyewear and their entire outfit. This is what appealed to Olivia Munoz, who was scrutinising her image from head to toe recently while trying on the wares. “I’m beginning to love sunglasses as much as I love shoes and bags and jewellery,” said Munoz, 21, a student at the University of Mississippi.

Prices for designer sunglasses have jumped to $350 or more in recent months, from an average of $250, retailers say, and the price spike has not turned off shoppers. “The youth of America has discovered sunglasses to be the aspirational and prestige item of the moment,” said Marshal Cohen, a senior analyst with the NPD Group, a market research firm. He predicts, “Sunglasses will replace the handbag as the image item” among teenage girls and young women.

While sales of handbags declined 14% in the last year, according to NPD, total sales in the $3 billion eyewear industry rose by 10%, even while the number of individual glasses sold has slackened — an indication there has been significant growth at the upper end of the market, Cohen said.

Why are designer sunglasses bucking the downturn of other luxury goods? Retailers and other fashion authorities cite It-bag fatigue (women have bought more bags in recent years than they can store in their closets), whereas sunglasses are still a novel way to acquire the designer cachet.

Sunglasses at the top rung of the price ladder are in step with trends. This summer, a heightened enthusiasm for aviator and wraparound frames and vintage Jackie O styles is contributing to their status as the luxury accent of the hour. Designers are playing into shoppers’ desire to be recognised, at least by those in the know, by downplaying big logos and incorporating more subtle signals of provenance. Bottega Veneta offers frames with woven leather insets that are recognisable to connoisseurs of the house’s hand-woven leather goods. Prada butterfly frames echo the motifs of the brand’s recent runway collections. Chrome Hearts frames are embellished with sterling bolo designs and leather trim reflective of the company’s rough-rider image.

She is among those turning their backs on ostentatious styling, and especially on the owlishly super-size frames popularised a few years back by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, in favour of scaled-down rectangles in bi-coloured plastic, imitation tortoise shell, wood, titanium or even gold.

Over all, “people are leaning towards the classics in rich materials,” said Richard Talmadge, the chief operating officer for Safilo, which makes Balenciaga, Jimmy Choo and Valentino eyewear. The company’s best sellers include Marc Jacobs aviators and television-screen-shaped plastic frames worthy of Anouk Aimée in La Dolce Vita. The most coveted styles have a candidly patrician cast. “They look back to the 1970s,” said Jayne Mountford, a trend consultant in Los Angeles. In contrast to the ‘70s originals, which made people seem aloof or anonymous, contemporary variations often feature gradient lenses that are tinted on top and clear below — a more approachable look. “Sunglasses aren’t armour anymore — they’re not about saying don’t touch me,” said Ed Burstell, the vice president for cosmetics and accessories for Bergdorf Goodman in New York. Among the more rarefied labels at Bergdorf are Bulgari, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen, Marc Jacobs, Chanel and Barton Perreira.

The demand for luxury sunglasses has spurred designers to quickly affix their logos to the latest styles, including some designers who had not previously had eyewear lines. The roster includes established giants like Tom Ford, Karl Lagerfeld and Giorgio Armani, and cutting-edge brands like Stella McCartney, Proenza Schouler and Thakoon, some offering wares for both women and men.

“Men have embraced sunglasses with a passion,” said James J Spina, the editor in chief of 20/20, an eyewear monthly. “Unlike men’s previous pet object, the watch, which half the time is covered by a sleeve, sunglasses are always visible, a kind of jewellery for the face. They give men an identity.”