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Press
They get it all the time, the devoted patrons of eyeglass store Visual Effects Optical: "Hey, where'd you get those specs?" About once a week, I'll be stopped midsentence while chatting with someone. "Where did you get those glasses?" I'm asked. It's a sort of revenge-of-the-nerds moment for those of us who must frame our faces on a daily basis. If my frames are viewed as hip, cool, and of the moment, I have to give credit to Chet Steinmetz, whose eye for eyewear has made Visual Effects Optical (1953 N. Clybourn Ave.) the boutique of choice among four-eyed fashionistas. I trust Steinmetz the way I trust my hairdresser, and rarely make a change without his consultation. "I know how to work with a face," admits Steinmetz, an optometrist who opened Visual Effects Optical in 1989. At first, he stocked the place with a conservative range of contemporary, traditional, and less expensive frames. "But everyone came in asking for what was hot and new," he says. "I realized other people want to wear what I want to wear." (Steinmetz is nearsighted.) He quickly sought out the most exclusive designers at the time, Oliver Peoples among them. Now, Matsuda, Okio, Kata, and Martine Sitbon are among his larger lines–not to mention the sizable selection of sunglass frames that reflect fashion's current penchant for seventies clothing. "It's the biggest change in the industry in ten years: Oversize frames with candy-colored lenses are replacing the smaller, more contemporary glasses," Steinmetz says. Apparently, I'm not the only one with a slavish devotion to Steinmetz–he has clients who return year after year, including film reviewers Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper, and one Juanita Jordan. "She started bringing the kids, too," Steinmetz says. Her well-known husband, however, is not a client. "He doesn't need glasses," says Steinmetz. Too bad. A pair of smoke-colored square lenses would lend just the right sense of mystery to the next closely watched move made by His Airness. - Deborah Wilk http://www.chicagomag.com/fashion/0701insider.htm
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