A sight for sore eyes

You might just be able to get away with it if you’re an A-lister, but anyone lower down in the celebrity alphabet than that and you’re pushing it. Despite what you think, wearing sunglasses in inappropriate places is just not cool. No matter how effortless and care-free you think you look, you don’t. Don’t be fooled by passersby staring at you, they are not jealous of your understated style, they are probably weighing up how much of a try-hard you are on a scale of 1 – 10. A little harsh you may think, but you’ve got to be cruel to be kind.

However there are, as with any set of unspoken fashion rules, loopholes in the debate of when and where sunglasses suffice (when it’s not actually sunny). For example, if you have a headache, sunglasses can stop the glaring daylight pouring into your peepers. Other acceptable reasons include when you’re harbouring a hangover, driving, in mourning or on your holidays. The following locations on the other hand, are not the right places to be shading your eyes…

On the tube – there is no natural light, you look ridiculous.

In a nightclub – even worse than the tube, you shouldn’t have even been let in.

In the dark – it’s nighttime, it’s pitch black, the only explanation is you can’t find the mirror.

On a date – all very well if you’re going alfresco but eye contact is an important part of connecting. Lose that and you’ll lose out.

In work – it’s not big, it’s not clever and it’s certainly not professional.

In bed – don’t do it…ever.

But it’s not only the everyday folk who lose their way when it comes to the who, what, where and why of sunglasses. Celeb’s including Mariah Carey, Usher, P.Diddy, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Paris Hilton, Razorlight’s Johnny Borrell, the Beckhams, the Olsens and Bono have all become victim to taking their sunglasses addiction a tad too far, wearing them at launch parties, award ceremonies, gallery openings, press conferences and basketball games. They might be hoping it makes them more inconspicuous, but anyone wearing sunglasses inside is going to find blending into the background a challenge. So if you’d rather not be the talked-about focal point (for all the wrong reasons) let this be a warning to you – when the sun goes down, the shades must come off!