Champion Social Justice With The Westward Leaning Color Revolution Sunglasses
Coined by media correspondents covering political affairs across the globe, the term “Color Revolution” refers to a non-violent social movement — typically organized by student activists, non-governmental organizations, labor groups, and youth collectives — that aims to democratize a government system, overthrow an oppressive totalitarian regime, and grant equal civil rights to all sections of society. In November of 2004, when Ukranian civilians protested the outcome of their most recent presidential election, claiming that voter intimidation and electoral fraud had yielded tainted results, they staged sit-ins, strikes, and marches to demand a re-vote —and, in each of these organized stagings, participants wore orange ribbons to convey their support for incumbent presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, who took his rightful place at the country’s helm in 2005. Due to the abundance of orange ribbons worn by protesters, this movement was later dubbed the Orange Revolution. Similarly, the Tulip Revolution (also known as the Pink Revolution) staged in Kyrgyzstan in the spring of 2005 led to the ousting of President Askar Akayev and his long-time family and associates, whose regime had been marred by corruption. And, while it didn’t call for a regime change, the 2005 Blue Revolution in Kuwait , which called for women’s right to suffrage, derived its name from the blue color of the signs carried by peaceful protesters. Similar “Color Revolutions” have been birthed throughout the former USSR and Middle East, a shining example of the power of peaceful protests.
One-year-old San Francisco-based sunglasses company Westward Leaning is celebrating the gumption and courage of freedom champions past and present with its latest offering: the Color Revolution collection. The new series incorporates three sunglasses, all inspired by the cheeky downtown edginess of the Ray Ban Wayfarer and boasting a similar silhouette, albeit with clear frames and ultra-reflective neon-coated lenses in the three shades most closely linked to famed Color Revolutions: pink, orange, and blue.
The mirrored lenses in these Westward Leaning sunglasses have an ’80s throwback grooviness to them, but they’re also extremely practical in that they don’t shift your color perception when you wear them — in other words, you won’t get those migraine-like headaches that can result from rocking shades with yellow or orange tinted lenses. Sweet, right? And to add a cohesiveness to the design, shards of these flashy lenses were molded into squares and inset along the groves by the temples, so that even a profile view of your face will stop traffic.
Retailing for $165 each, the Westward Leaning Color Revolution shades are available at WestwardLeaning.com and, thanks to a budding new retail partnership, at Opening Ceremony boutiques in New York, London, and Los Angeles.
Best of all, to show its support for those at the front-lines of these justice-seeking social movements, Westward Leaning will donate $10 from the purchase of each pair of shades to Reporters without Borders, an organization that aims to protect the journalists who often risk their lives to accurately cover revolutions around the globe.
