During the course of my one night stay, I had three different rooms on three different floors of the building. That is another story, but the interesting fact about The Shard is that the lower down you are, the better the room is. This is because the lower floors are larger than the higher ones.
Having spent the night and following morning in one of their Iconic Suites, coming back to ground level is something of a return to reality as you have been literally up in the clouds. As I left the hotel, I spotted a blue Bentley Continental parked outside and it was surrounded by photographers.
As some of you may know, I like to do a bit of street photography. One of my favourite shots is to shoot a photographer who is in the process of shooting a scene. I quickly grabbed my trusty Fujifilm compact from my bag and started taking shots of one of the photographers who was in my line of sight.
He spotted me, came over and asked me if I would like to sit in the car. Initially, I declined. But as he was quite insistent, eventually I agreed. However, rather than user me into the driver's seat he took me round to the passenger side. On entering the car I was greeted with perhaps the loudest pair of spectacles I have seen for quite some time sitting on the face of a rather exotic-looking lady.
Without being introduced, I immediately asked about her frames. It turned out that they are Roberto Cavalli and although you can't tell from the photograph they were a lovely shade of purple. I had to try them on. Removing my blue Theo Grace frame (also quite loud) I put these outrageous spectacles on to then hear the sound of three photographers snapping away with their lenses stuck through both open windows of the car.
They didn't look bad on me but I don't think I'll be wearing them to a board meeting anytime soon.
As I had removed my host's specs she then grabbed another pair from the console. One of the Prada Baroque range. The car was literally littered with frames and I was advised there were yet more in the trunk.
Only then was I introduced to the driver of the car. She is Gracie Opulanza and this was a promotion for the Men Style Fashion website of which Gracie is the Head Editor. Her mission is to see men dress well all the time. Thank God I was well turned out that day.
Obviously, the conversation then turned to eyewear. Gracie has her own website, www.gracieopulanza.com and there is loads of information on there about eyewear and how is can be impactful, eccentric and confidence-building. Nothing new to me, but a refreshing message for most people who do not appreciate these matters.
Those of you who know me will know I have lots of eyewear and the louder the better in my view (no pun intended). I lost count at 300 frames and I am now steadily documenting them with a selfie at day on Twitter (@planetstraight) and on Instagram (@straightspex). Most of my frames are by Theo in Belgium. Gracie also wrote about Theo in 2012. Well, I discovered them more then 20 years before that, so never let if be said that I am not a trend-setter!
That day I was patting myself of the back for reaching 7,000 followers on my Twitter account. Gracie has more than 45,000 on her account and nearly 200k on the Men Style page. Clearly a lot of people think she has something useful to say.
It is good to see eyewear coming into the mainstream and people now talking about glasses as a fashion accessory rather than something people have one pair of that is rarely updated. I have built a reputation for having eclectic eyewear and it has become part of my personal brand over the past 25 years.
And whilst there is nothing more flattering than having the Paparazzi taking your photograph incessantly for several minutes, it was also good to meet a kindred spirit. Gracie, your glasses are wilder than mine ... for now, anyway.
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