Impulse Buying – Eyeglasses

Last week-end, we went back to Paris for a looooong awaited long week-end in our previous home town.

Although I am Moroccan bred and London adopted these days, I remained truly a “parisienne” at heart. So obviously, I was super excited to go “back to the mothership” and couldn’t name all the things I am looking forward to enjoying: getting lost in St-Germain-des-pres streets, reading books in the Jardin des Tuileries, spending a month worth of salary shopping, visiting my favourites boutiques (esp. the one I used to get 50% on all Marc Jacobs Shoes), eating at my favourite places, seeing my friends,  treating myself in Sephora etc etc etc

One thing I didn’t expect to be doing though – Impulse buying eye glasses.

I have talked before how I was looking for change to my 10 year old (!) faithful pair of glasses. I have tried loads since but never found something that really clicked with me.  So I just gave up and kept wearing my good old ones (never mind the right frame is 2 cm higher than the left one, they keep sliding down my nose …or that my hair gets constantly stuck in the branches joints).

Then, here I am, in Paris with Hubby, The Little Man and my Sister walking down its sunny streets  (take this rainy rather forecast!). Suddenly, as we were walking past an optician shop, my eye caught a big display of the latest Ray-Ban sun glasses. My sister and I being big fans of the brands and never ones to lose a chance to try some new stuff on, we decided to go in. We looked so not in the mood  of buying anything that the shop guy barely said “hello” to us, patiently waiting for us to indulge all our trials before leaving.

And he was right. See, I really wanted to buy a pair of Aviators to replace my previous pair – which I can’t seem to find anywhere -but was a bit put off by the price and the fact that if I look hard enough I should find my old pair.

Then something unexpected happened. Hubby, who has been trying for weeks now to get me to buy some proper glasses (he blames my recurring headaches on the fact I am not constantly using my glasses), spotted the perfect frame (Oversized and Dark Blue) I have been talking about for weeks. They happen to be Ralph Lauren.

Truth is, things never actually look on you as they look in your imagination, so my first reaction, when I put them on, was “I love them…but I look a bit different” (you know, the same feeling as when you get a new hair colour done). Luckily, I had my 3 best style advisors with me.

Their verdict?

Hubby: I like. You buy (Short and sweet. In his typical straight to the point no non-sense communication style).

My Sister: J’adddooooorrrreee! (And 20 iterations of the same feeling. In her typical 20 something Over The Top ways).

The Little Man: Nice (Whilst trying to ripe them off my face).

So of course, to the optician surprise, I went up to him and told him “I am buying”.

Still, as he was taking all the right dimensions and tests for the glasses, I kept wondering “Is it insane to be buying something like that on a hunch as it comes up quite expensive in the end?”.

This is when, as if feeling my doubts, the guy said “we are currently having an offer – when you buy this pair of glasses, you get to pick the sunglasses of your choice. For Free”.

Hello again Ray-Bans Aviators – welcome to my collection

What do you think? Was I right to just impulse buy them?

Bisous bisous.