On choosing a tint

A lens colour is a small decision that colours everything else. Put on amber and the evening seems to linger; put on grey and the sea is simply the sea, only quieter. Before shape or size, it is worth knowing what each tint does to the world on the other side of it.

The warm tints

Amber is the classic blue-light tint. It filters some of the blue in the light that reaches you and lays a warm cast over screens, lamps and the last of the daylight. White pages take on the colour of old paper, and a laptop looks as if it were lit by a candle. Many people simply like how that feels at the end of a long day. It is the tint our first edition was built around, in Lumix in Smoke / Amber.

Honey is amber's daytime cousin, paler and more golden. It brightens a flat grey morning and gives stone, linen and skin a sunlit warmth, which is why it sits so easily in Vertex in Havana / Honey.

Ruby goes furthest, shifting nearly everything towards red. It is a lens for low lamps and a late room rather than the small print, and in Lumix in Jet / Ruby it is the most theatrical colour in the catalogue.

The true tints

Onyx, our dark grey, is the purist's lens. It dims the light evenly across every colour, so a red awning stays red and the sea keeps its own blue. It is the tint for full sun, and for anyone who wants things to look as they are, only softer. Its natural home is Nocturne in Jet / Onyx.

Bottle green is the classic of the coast. It keeps colours close to true, with a little extra contrast and a coolness that suits a hot afternoon. In a crystal frame, as in Riviera in Crystal / Bottle Green, a dark lens looks lighter on the face than you might expect.

Then there is clear, which changes the world least of all: the lens for screen hours, and for anyone who wants the frame without the colour. Vertex in Crystal / Clear almost disappears, leaving only the line of the brow.

The soft tints

Rose belongs to the golden hour. It warms skin, deepens the pinks of bougainvillea and old plaster, and gives a late lunch the flattering light of early evening. Nocturne in Jet / Rose sets it against the boldest frame in the collection.

Ice blue does the opposite of amber, cooling the scene and crisping up whites. It is as much about how you look as how you see, and against black, in Riviera in Jet / Ice Blue, it has a certain city sharpness.

The brown gradient is the most practical tint of all. Darker at the top and fading towards the bottom, it shades the sky and leaves the table in plain view, so you can read a menu without taking your glasses off. Brown also warms and adds a little contrast, which is why it flatters almost everyone, whether in Monaco in Havana / Brown Gradient or the paler Champagne / Brown Gradient.

One note for every colour: the darkness of a lens says nothing about UV. A good sun lens should block it, so look for UV400 or the CE mark.

Choose a tint for the light you will wear it in, not the light you happen to be standing in.

Lens and frame

Last comes the frame, and there are two ways to think about it. Tonal pairs stay within one family: honey or brown in havana, onyx in jet. They feel calm, as though the glasses belong to the face. Contrasting pairs set lens against frame: amber in cool translucent smoke, rose or ice blue in jet. They are livelier, and the colour of the lens is the first thing anyone notices.

A crystal or champagne frame lightens whatever lens it holds, which helps if a dark tint feels heavy on you. Jet does the opposite, and frames the lens like a picture.

Smoke / Amber, our first edition, has sold out. Every other colourway here is coming in Collection II, and you are welcome to join the list. Until then, Forty-eight hours on Capri follows the tints through a single long weekend.