KAREN WALKER EYEWEAR (New York)

What's the one must-have Summer item? Beach home, fast car, luxe yacht? Nope. It's statement sunglasses - specifically, Karen Walker's statement shades. Indeed, few things really make a statement like a bold pair of Karen Walker's somewhat unusual but definitely distinctive eyewear. '80s avant garde, oversized glamazon, tastefully chunky, quirkily round -- take your pick, these cool unisex sunnies are just the Summer fashion fix you've been hankering for.

KAREN WALKER
New Zealand-born, New York-based Karen Walker has a reputation for designs "that provide a means of appearing cool but not trying too hard". A reoccurring theme in her work is taking extremes and pushing them together -- masculine and feminine, tailored and street, luxury and non-luxury, dark and super-cute. Karen Walker's creations celebrate the anti "it girl" -- characters like Ally Sheedy's heavy-fringed weirdo in 'The Breakfast Club', not the beautiful girl in the room, but the interesting one. These extremes reflect particularly heavily in her eyewear collection as an ongoing reference.