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πŸ“• Part 1: Sunglasses

Maria reveals sunglasses can cost almost $400,000! Listen to find out why Rory once had a huge argument over a pricey pair of Ray-Bans and what it takes to make the perfect fashion statement.

Maria & Rory

Β· 11 min read

This episode’s vocabulary

Cloud cover

noun β€” the state of the sky when it is covered with clouds.

Outfit

noun β€” a set of clothes worn together, especially for a particular occasion or purpose.

Phenomenal

adj. β€” remarkable or exceptional, especially exceptionally good.

Eyeglass frame

noun β€” the structure that holds and surrounds the lenses, providing support and shaping the overall design of the eyewear.

Eyeglass lenses

noun β€” optical elements designed to protect the eyes from sunlight by reducing glare, blocking harmful UV radiation, and enhancing visual comfort.

Polarized sunglasses

phrase β€” polarized, or anti-glare, sunglass lenses reduce light glare and eyestrain.

Eyeglassbridge

noun β€” the part of the frame that spans the nose, connecting the two lenses and providing support for the eyewear on the wearer's face.

To tailor

verb β€” to make or adapt something for a particular purpose or person.

Fashion statement

phrase β€” a deliberate and distinctive expression of personal style, reflecting individual preferences or societal trends through clothing, accessories, or overall appearance.

Unhinged

adj. β€” affected with madness or insanity.

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πŸ“• Part 1: Sunglasses
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Questions and answers

Maria

Do you often wear sunglasses?

Rory

Well, there’s a lot of cloud cover in my country so it’s not necessary most of the time. When I’m on holiday in other countries, I do though, even if it’s cloudy, because my Ray Bans are like a part of my outfit for going on holiday.

Maria

When do you wear sunglasses?

Rory

When I'm outside? When the sun is out? Like I said, I usually only wear them in the daytime on holidays. And that's when the sun's out. It's not often out in my own country. Often enough to justify it really?

Maria

Do you spend a lot of money on sunglasses?

Rory

Oh, wow, I had a huge argument with someone about this once, because I said it was a phenomenal waste of money to spend hundreds of pounds on sunglasses when you could buy so many other different things. And then I started to make proper money. And one of the first things I bought was these RayBans. So, while I don't spend a lot of money on sunglasses now, I certainly did in the past.

Maria

Do you give sunglasses as a gift?

Rory

I mean people could, but so many things need to be considered... Like the style of the frame and the shape and colour of the lenses, whether they're polarized or not... I think even the shape of the bridge, to be honest, is something that has to be tailored to each person. I think it's better as a personal choice, but that's just my opinion.

Maria

When do you never wear sunglasses?

Rory

When I'm indoors or when it's cloudy, and there's no, sort of, fashion statement to be made by wearing them. It would look a bit unhinged if you wear sunglasses inside... Like I'm doing now.

Discussion

Maria

I wear my sunglasses at night... Do you know this song?

Rory

No...

Maria

So sunglasses, or you can call them glasses. Also, eyewear? How can I use this eyewear word? Like, eyewear.

Rory

I guess if you're paraphrasing the question. So what was one of the questions?

Maria

Do you often wear sunglasses?

Rory

Well, what? No, I don't really require eyewear because my vision is fine, and there's not enough sun in my country to justify it. There we go.

Maria

Exactly. Also, dear listener, you use different brands. Rory told us about Ray-Bans.

Rory

I did. And so Ray-Bans, pay me money for advertising, please. I like these ones. Although I think everybody has a pair that looks like this nowadays.

Maria

So you can say: I enjoy Ray-Bans eyewear, Ray-Bans sunglasses. So you say when I'm on holiday, I wear sunglasses or when it's cloudy. Or when what? When I'm in the sun?

Rory

Yeah, when the sun's out or when there's not so much cloud cover. For example. There are different ways to talk about clouds. Clouds or out, cloudy, cloud cover lots of cloud cover.

Maria

And you can say that Ray-Bans are a part of my outfit... Ok? Because sunglasses are a stylish accessory, dear listener. So they are a part of your outfit. Of your style and clothes.

Rory

Well, they are a part of some people's outfits. They're not necessarily part of mine. I feel very uncomfortable sitting indoors wearing these glasses, which I've done for the whole episode. I hope you're impressed.

Maria

So you can say that: Well if I want to add a touch of cool to my look, I wear sunglasses. You know, like, add a touch of cool to your look, to your outfit.

Rory

Why are sunglasses considered cool?

Maria

Because... I don't know. You hide your eyes and you kind of like, YEAH!

Rory

Like the mystery. You can only see my eyebrows now.

Maria

Yeah. Oh, and by the way, Rory, can you do this with sunglasses? Is it like okay to do this?

Rory

Oh yeah, you wear them on your head like that. You know, some cool people wear two sets of sunglasses at the same time.

Maria

No, this is bad manners. Don't do this. Okay? So this is not cool, right? Especially if you're a lady. If you want to be elegant and nice. Never do this. Okay? Sunglasses go straight to the special bag and into your bag. Okay, not on your head.

Rory

What do you call this special bag?

Maria

I have no idea...

Rory

It's a poach sunglasses pouch. Yeah. Well, it could be a pouch. Or it could be a case.

Maria

I wear glasses when I'm outside. Or I wear glasses in the sun. And also we say a pair of sunglasses. Okay? A pair like a pair of jeans, a pair of sunglasses. But actually, dear listener, you can wear your sunglasses everywhere. On the street, in the car, in a nightclub, in the office, you know... To add a touch of cool to your look. And also that cycling glasses, for example. Yeah. And if you go swimming, what do you call these glasses? So when they...

Rory

Oh, goggles!

Maria

Goggles, dear listener. So you can say that: Oh, I sometimes wear goggles - special glasses for swimming. Rory, do you ever wear sunglasses indoors? To look cool? Like in a nightclub?

Rory

No. I think that's insane. And actually, I think it's really frowned upon because it's already dark in the club. I don't know why you would wear sunglasses unless you were blind. In which case, I don't actually think they're sunglasses. I think there are different kinds of glasses.

Maria

We can spend a lot of money on eyewear. Eyewear - sunglasses, right? And Rory told us that he used to spend a lot of money on sunglasses.

Rory

Oh, well, I did once. One time in the past I spent a lot of money on sunglasses, and then I never needed to again because they were so high quality. They have lasted... I've had the sunglasses almost as long as we've had the podcast, actually.

Maria

Wow! So you can say that my sunglasses have lasted for a long time. So they have lasted for a long time. Or I've been wearing them for 10 years. Okay? But I still have them. If they broke...

Rory

If they broke, I would have a nervous breakdown because they were hundreds of patterns.

Maria

You can also say that I own a pricey pair of sunglasses pricey or very expensive. All right? So like, to stand out from the crowd I need to have expensive sunglasses. To stand out - to be different from everybody else. Rory, do you know how much the most expensive sunglasses cost?

Rory

Oh, I mean, they'll be 1000s I would imagine if not 10s of 1000s.

Maria

Okay, dear listener, are you ready? Dolce Gabbana. You know, Dolce Gabbana the brand? So the Dolce Gabbana glasses cost almost $400,000 Okay, dear listener? Also, Cartier glasses cost about $160,000, dear listener. And Bulgari sunglasses are as cheap as almost $60,000.

Rory

Oh, only... Okay... I don't really... Well, there are all kinds of reasons that people would spend money on that, but it's not the kind of thing I would spend money on if I had that kind of money.

Maria

And you can say that if I had money, I would buy designer glasses, like a Gucci pair of glasses with diamonds and emeralds and gold. You see? So you show off your super vocabulary, like glasses made of platinum with other precious gemstones.

Rory

If you're a normal person, though, perhaps you could talk about what the features of regular pairs of sunglasses are... It's probably easier to compare the two because I've got two different styles of sunglasses with me now. You can see they have a different shape for these metal bits here. These are the frames, they both have the black bits, and these glass things here are the lenses. And if they reflect the light, then they are...

Maria

Polarized!

Rory

Polarized.

Maria

Yeah, for example, my glasses- ultra polarized! So they reflect something...

Rory

Well, they reflect a lot of the light because they need to reduce the glare. The glare is the amount of light coming into your eyes. And so if there's a lot of that it can damage your eyes.

Maria

So you can see that I need to protect my eyes or my vision against which kind of rays? UV rays.

Rory

And if you live in a hot country, unlike me, then you might need to say: Because there's so much ultraviolet radiation, it's important to wear sunglasses all the time, or most of the time outside.

Maria

Ultraviolet?

Rory

Ultraviolet radiation. That's what it's called. Well ultraviolet light, I should say. Sorry.

Maria

Yeah. And also about the shape we can have... The most common shape of glasses is pilot-shaped glasses.

Rory

Do you mean aviators?

Maria

Aviators? Oh boy... No, I think "Aviators" is something else.

Rory

Beg my pardon. They are pilot-shaped. The term "aviator" is something that's unique to Ray-Ban. So again, Ray-Ban, pay me money for advertising.

Maria

Yeah, so you can say like pilot-shaped glasses or what other shapes do we have?

Rory

Whatever shapes Ray-Ban will pay me to advertise... I honestly don't know. Aviators or pilot-shaped glasses, have very big lenses and they cover more of the eye space

Maria

Oh, there we go. Pilot-shaped, oval, round glasses... Rory has round glasses like John Lennon.

Rory

They are round...

Maria

Square-shaped glasses, rectangle glasses and geometrical... Usually, we say like pilot-shaped glasses. I think that these are pilot-shaped. Rory has round-shaped glasses. Also, dear listeners, you can say that my sunglasses feature a blue light filter. So they have a feature of protecting your eyes from some blue light. All right? So, it's a very fancy thing to say. My sunglasses feature blue light filters. For example, they are good for all outdoor conditions. Okay? Or my sunglasses are good for sensitive eyes. I have sensitive eyes. So I wear special sunglasses. Rory told us about lenses, right? They can be green... and grey lens colour. Okay? So lenses can be of different colors. And also frame, where your diamonds are... Like metal frame or... I don't know. With diamonds, emeralds and gold made of platinum.

Rory

Most people will have metal frames, I would imagine.

Maria

So I wear sunglasses as a status symbol. So they're expensive and I show off my status to other people.

Rory

So if you wear them in public, even on a cloudy day, that's supposed to be a status symbol. Supposed to be... you don't have to do this.

Maria

It would be unhinged if I wore them inside. Rory, what's unhinged?

Rory

It's just crazy... But not massively crazy, just a little bit crazy. But still, it's not really a great idea to wear sunglasses inside. I mean, just for safety alone, you could bump into things it's quite dark.

Maria

Yeah. And Ray-Bans, Gucci, Prada... What other brands of sunglasses do we have? I think like Oakley is also quite common.

Rory

It is, only if they're paying us for the pleasure of advertising, though. Seriously. Oakley and Ray-Bans get in touch

Maria

Right, dear listener, tell us what you think of sunglasses. What kind of sunglasses do you have? And if you had millions of pounds, of dollars, would you buy Dolce Gabbana or Prada glasses with diamonds and gold? Okay?

Rory

Or would you use that money for something more sensible?

Maria

And remember, sunglasses don't go on your head... Just like this. Okay? Thank you so much. Hugs and Kisses.

Rory

Bye!

Maria

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