Not the ones I buy. I mean, yeah, there's a lot of fashion in those Oakleys but there's a lot of function, too. They don't slip down my nose, the lenses are coated and don't collect as much crap, and the frames don't snap after a year. After fifteen years my oldest Oakleys are still going after less expensive sunglasses have broken or proven unsatisfactory. But those sunglasses also have to stand up to a life of trail running and hiking.

OTOH, if one is just looking to keep the sun out of the eyes while driving, $250 sunglasses might be overkill.

They were quite expensive, but have turned out to be pretty good value 15+ years later.

Merely paying more for sunglasses doesn't make them good. It takes a long time to find ones that are muted enough to be cool, and yet with enough flourish in the details to be distinctive.

There is also the quality of the light that is filtered. I only ever buy "*3" (high degree of light protection) and preferably with polarized for better contrast. Whether it is $250 or $500 they're on your face so much they're a much and a quality pair will last years. It's a good thing to spend money on, though I do admit that it doesn't always have to be expensive. You can get lucky and find a great pair in an old antiques shop and get them re-lensed for something reasonable.

Found this comment rubbed me the wrong way - seems insane to me to judge the boringness of a person by the price of their sunglasses

You must be responding to how you feel, because you sure as hell aren’t responding to what I wrote.

Allow me to explain my position.

Clothing is a form of communication. When you wear particular clothing, it communicates which group you identify with or want to associate with.

Let’s suppose that we were having a conversation and you said to me, “I don’t like to stand out, I like to blend in with the crowd and avoid being noticed.” I might think that you were a bit boring. You can communicate the same thing by wearing boring clothing.

What I’m doing is judging you based on the things that you communicate to me. If you are bad at non-verbal communication, don’t worry about accidentally coming off as boring—it’s very hard to communicate “boring” with your clothing, and it doesn’t happen by accident.

I'm just responding to that quote from your last post.

> When you wear particular clothing, it communicates which group you identify with or want to associate with.

Agree to a point, but I don't think "Boring" is generally a group someone would try to identify/associate with (I'm assuming you're using boring as a derogatory term here). I also disagree that outgoingness is synonymous with how interesting a person is (in fact I'm sure you'd agree there are many instances of the contrary).

And outside of being "good" or "bad" at non-verbal communication you're forgetting another important direction: people who do not care.

Take you for example - I find you very interesting because you have strong opinions that differ to mine - It would have been a shame had I immediately categorised you as boring given the sunglasses you were able to afford or if you didn't care about sunglasses beyond their function.

You said, “seems insane to me to judge the boringness of a person by the price of their sunglasses”

This is some kind of straw argument—to be clear, it’s not what I wrote, it’s not what I meant, it’s not what I implied.

> And outside of being "good" or "bad" at non-verbal communication you're forgetting another important direction: people who do not care.

It is a mistake to think of “does not care” as some kind of meaningful third position. It is not.

Here’s an analogy. Let’s say I ask you, “Did you take the last slice of cake?” It’s a yes/no question with social stakes—maybe I’m upset that I didn’t get any cake. Is there a way that you can avoid communicating a response to my question? No, not really. You heard the question, I’m waiting for your response. You can say yes or no, you can change the topic, you can dodge the question, you can turn the question around, and you can even stay silent—but it is nearly impossible for you to avoid making a conscious decision to communicate a response.

Clothing is like that, but the question is implied and the response is nonverbal. Under ordinary circumstances, you must choose how to dress yourself. You can choose to grab whatever is on top of the pile, you can choose to pick out an outfit, you can choose to go outside in your pajamas or stark naked, but you cannot somehow choose not to make a choice.

Take a moment and visualize what “I don’t care how others see me” looks like. Do you pick average clothing to blend in? Do you wear whatever you like? Do you carefully observe gender norms when buying clothing from the store? Do you wear whatever has the most pockets? Do you wear the same clothing sitting around the house as you do when you visit a friend’s house? Do you wear T-shirts with characters from your favorite cartoon? Do you wear something from the pile of T-shirts I got for free from vendors at tech conventions?

The problem is—once you are aware that you are making a choice, you aren’t really in a position to abdicate that choice.

Maybe OP prefers rhinestone shades? ;)