Style Notes: Sonya Lennon’s comeback collaboration has specs appeal, student designs at Om Diva, and the River Island bursary winner is announced

It’s linked to something she wears every day of the year, and always day into night — and that’s glasses.

In a new venture, Lennon has teamed up with Specsavers to curate her favourite frames from its new LUXe Nordic-inspired eyewear collection.

The company has unveiled a refreshed range, and Lennon was invited to choose her favourite six frames, which include the subtle green ‘Fern’ frame, a pilot-style acetate frame with a glossy finish.

To build on the colour, Lennon has ordered her green bifocal glasses with a green tint, and the double layering of colour is quite something.

“I started out with reading specs and quickly moved on to bifocals,” says Lennon, who went back to college as a mature student at the age of 51.

“Thankfully, I enjoy wearing glasses. I like the experience of it and I think it has become part of my image as well. People expect me to wear glasses, so I’m more than happy to keep going the way I’m going,” she says.

She proved her expert credentials presenting Off The Rails with Brendan Courtney, offering advice in changing rooms on all aspects of style, from wearing colour to shapewear, and I am fully confident we will see their independently owned Lennon Courtneybrand make a comeback, something I know will please their very loyal fanbase.

When it comes to glasses, or ‘face furniture’ as I call my specs, Lennon acknowledges that attitudes have changed hugely. You can see how much people are prepared to experiment with clothes in their wardrobes in terms of colour and silhouettes, and that change in mindset has travelled north of the neck.

There are now “different connotations” to wearing glasses, says Lennon. “They were seen as a functional item previously and thankfully we’ve evolved now to the point where it can become kind of an identify signifier and part of your personal style.”

When it comes to iconic styles that defined the decades and have returned to fashion, Lennon admits she has always had a thing about the glasses worn by actor Elliott Gould in the 1970s.

“It’s always back to the 1970s for me, and that’s the decade that is always at my core in terms of styling,” she says.

Lennon’s curated frames move from strong, dark colours to more subtle, pale ones. The ‘Dove’ frame in the collection is retro, with a geometric frame in a pale-pink crystal with gold sides. The ‘Allirea’ is rose-gold coloured with a mauve-grey front, while the ‘Yari’ has geometric, semi-rimless metal frames with polished rose-gold colour fused with pale-grey front.

The ‘Thyme’ style is very much a statement look, with oversized square frames in dark-brown tortoiseshell, while the ‘Keenan’ has a high double bridge in black with bronze-coloured details.

All LUXe styles are priced at €189 and are included in the two-for-one offer. They are available online and in selected stores. Tinted lenses are extra. specsavers.ie

Students in store

You have to hand it to Marieflorence Keane and her fellow fourth-year students at Limerick School of Art and Design — they certainly are keen.

Keane interned at Chanel last summer, and her Cloudsinmycoffee brand is available at Atelier 27 in Om Diva on Dublin’s Drury Street.

Her latest styles include wool blazers with organza sleeves (€160) and separates with exposed zip and sequin details.

Keane has been joined in the store by college pals Éadaoin Walsh, who interned in a sustainable knitwear company in New York, and Emma Byrne, who interned as a print designer for NA-KD in Sweden.

Walsh has designed some pieces using duchess satin, upcycled denim and cotton quilted patchwork, while Byrne worked with duchess satin and designed separates made from an upcycled blazer with ribbon detail. omdivaboutique.com

River Island bursary

Congratulations to 23-year-old Molly Walters from Dublin, winner of the 2023 River Island student bursary.

It’s 19 years since the high-street brand launched the RI X NCAD bursary, which provides an invaluable first step into the challenging commercial fashion world.

She receives €3,500 and a three-month paid placement at the brand’s HQ in London, where many past winners have gone on to become full-time members of River Island’s 100-strong in-house design team.

Walters shot her collection video at a Mattress Mick store and she tells me her winning entry, ‘Waste Not, Want Not’, was inspired by her late grandmother’s philosophy of treasuring and taking care of her possessions and garments.