Parlux Assigns Paris Hilton Sunglass License to Gripping Eyewear, Inc.

Parlux Fragrances, Inc. (NASDAQ: PARL) announced today an agreement with Gripping Eyewear, Inc. ("GEI"), assigning the world wide exclusive licensing rights with Paris Hilton Entertainment, Inc. for the production and distribution of Paris Hilton Sunglasses. Terms of the assignment were not disclosed.

"We are pleased that Paris Hilton sunglasses will now be available to the consumer from this innovative and creative company. The glamour and appeal of the Paris Hilton brand will be easily translated into this important accessory line," said Neil J. Katz, Chairman and CEO of Parlux.

Jimmy Jongebloed, President and CEO of GEI, commented, "Eyewear is a natural extension of Paris' already successful collections, including fragrances and footwear. The world wide Paris Hilton brand exudes beauty and elegance, which we intend to capture in her sunglass line." Mr. Jongebloed continued, "We own several patents involving magnetic technology in eyewear, eyewear accessories and displays, as well as other patented accessories which will be designed by, and especially for, Paris Hilton. GEI is pleased to accompany Paris in her eyewear debut and in deriving great potential in the luxury fashion sector. We anticipate launching Paris' sunwear collection in major department stores this summer."

About Parlux

Parlux Fragrances, Inc. is a manufacturer and international distributor of prestige products. It holds licenses for Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, GUESS?, Nicole Miller, Natori, Queen Latifah, XOXO, Ocean Pacific (OP), Andy Roddick, babyGund, and Fred Hayman Beverly Hills designer fragrances, as well as Paris Hilton watches, cosmetics, sunglasses, handbags and other small leather accessories.

About GEI

GEI owns several patents involving magnetic technology in eyewear, eyewear accessories and displays, as well as other patented accessories. Proprietary features allow GEI to offer the worldwide consumer unique benefits in eyewear with the style and elegance of Paris Hilton.

Certain Information Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, regarding, among other things, our plans, strategies and prospects, both business and financial. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company or its industry to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, future trends in sales and the Company's ability to successfully introduce, acquire, or launch new brands, licenses, or products in a cost-effective manner, general economic conditions and continued compliance with the covenants in its credit facility. Additional risk factors are set forth in the Company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date thereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

FMG Surfer Marc Lacomare Signs Two Year Deal With Oakley Eyewear

18 year-old French surfer Marc Lacomare from Hossegor starts off 2009 with a new eyewear sponsor. Marc signed a two-year deal with Oakley Eyewear right before taking off to the Billabong World Junior Championships in Australia where he came third and finished the highest ranked European.

"I know this might sound cheesy, but I'm really happy to be able to sign with a strong and prestigious brand such as Oakley. Oakley has a great support system and an equally great surf team. I was just yesterday thinking how amazing it would be to go a surf trip with Bruce Irons... The other good news is that I will be working closely with Yann Martin who is the Oakley team manager in France and also a great coach."

Says Yann Martin, Oakley team manager France: "I'm equally thrilled to have Marc on the Oakley team. He's a very talented surfer and shows maturity beyond his years. He had some very good results this year and to sign him up was a no-brainer for us; the second place at the Oakley Global Challenge, the French national Junior title, the European Junior title in Morocco and now the third place in Narrabeen at the World Juniors. Marc had nerves of steal during this contest, especially during his heat with Owen Wright, who was touted one of the event's favorites.
However, that's not all, because he also loves to charge big barrels. I'm sure Marc and Oakley will have a great future together."

Marc Lacomare is sponsored by DC, Oakley, Kommunity Project, Pukas Surfboards, FCS and Bidonvilla Sushibar.

FMG (Friday Management Group) is an action sports athlete management company, with a focus on quality before quantity.

FMG's goal is to provide its clients the necessary support and guidance to help them develop and maximize their careers. FMG is founded on the principles of commitment, forging long-term relationships and a 'nothing-is-impossible' attitude. The company is formed by independent sports TV production specialists, Friday.

Miu Miu oversized retro sunglasses

It's around this time of year that the big design houses start reminding us what Spring/Summer dressing is all about, and in accessories that means the advent of brand new sunglasses. Oversized retro numbers for the ladies aren't going anywhere, and Miu Miu's new pairs are the perfect vintage homage.

These two pairs are new in at ASOS and take obvious inspiration from the sixties and seventies. Their seventies pair (left) have an added angular detail that makes them a truly genuine reproduction. With the use of classic tortoiseshell on both sets of frames, these make classics that avoid datedness easily.

Researchers blame extreme light exposure for degenerated vision

Light is, undoubtedly, a vital part of human existence, but too much of eye exposure to light can lead to steady vision degeneration with age, according to an Australian.

Professor Jonathan Stone from The Vision Centre at University of Sydney led the research. The team claims that their research has enough proof to convince that cumulative light exposure in an individual's lifespan can result in weak vision and the loss may further continue with the aging process.

"We're born with about 150 million light-sensitive cells – known as photoreceptors – in each eye. All through our life we lose these at a steady rate of hundreds every day, but some people lose them much faster than others, with the result that they go blind – sometimes quite early in life," said Stone.

"These light-sensitive photoreceptors are remarkably tough, and most people still have 100 million or so left by the time they reach their 70s or 80s," Stone added. He explained that the photoreceptors cells begin to lose in late stage of life, leading to dimmed eyesight or even complete vision loss.

According to Stone, "The eye contains a great many highly-specialized genes, which affect no other part of the body, and these in turn produce many random mutations. It is these mutations which make the normally gradual degeneration of the retina more acute in some people than in others."

If light exposure is limited all through the life, particularly in middle and old age, then these photoreceptors may last longer through the older years. The research team suggested sunglasses as one effective way of cutting down the exposure.

Stone commented, "Most sunglasses will reduce by 25-50 per cent the amount of outdoors light from entering the eye and, knowing what I now do as a result of years of work in this field, I never go outside without my sunnies."

Even though, some exposure is essential to avert myopia and eyeball distortion in kids, researchers believe that too much exposure could well be damaging and irreparable. Being mindful to the amount of light exposure in childhood and adolescence years, can be rewarding in later years of an individual's life.

"However our research clearly indicates that there are also environmental factors at work which cause the eye to lose photoreceptors more rapidly, especially in people with a certain genetic makeup," said Stone.

To some extent, a protective antioxidant-rich diet can slow down this age-specific vision degeneration. While researches are on ways to fix damaged vision, wearing a sunglass outdoors might just be equally good.

Stone noted that "It appears that by managing the oxygen levels in the eye, through diet and other methods, we can slow down and possible even reverse the loss of photoreceptors, and we are planning a clinical trial to test this idea."

Sony unveils flexi-video screen, movie glasses

Sony Corp on Thursday unveiled a bendable video screen and eyeglasses that allow the wearer to watch a movie from any location, saying the industry must keep innovating in the middle of a severe economic slump.

Chief Executive Howard Stringer demonstrated a range of new devices at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, including the flexible OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screen playing a video of singer Beyonce.

Stringer also showed off prototype eyeglasses with built in video screens, letting users view movies wherever they are.

Sony announced it had enlisted video game publisher Electronic Arts for its fledgling home online PlayStation service, and signed up Viacom Inc's MTV Networks to provide more than 2,000 hours of video content.

Kaz Harai, head of Sony computer entertainment, said the company had signed up 2.1 million new users for the online network in the most recent month.

Sony, which on Wednesday said it had seen sales of some of its core products exceed expectations during the just-ended U.S. holiday season, is hoping to stoke consumer demand in 2009 with new, cutting-edge product.

The Japanese firm, which pioneered the Walkman and once dominated the high-end electronics marketplace, is going through a painful restructuring that will see it shed 16,000 jobs and curb investment to try to save $1 billion. Analysts and media speculate more measures are in the works.

The maker of Bravia flat TVs and PlayStation 3 video game consoles, hoping to breathe life into a loss-making TV arm, on Wednesday trotted out a new line of eco-friendly, ultra-slim TVs.

Carl Zeiss takes on Vuzix with new video eyewear

Carl Zeiss has announced a new version of its Cinemizer video eyewear at Macworld 2009 in San Francisco on Tuesday.

The company, which is more famous for its lenses on Sony digital cameras and Nokia mobile phones, believes that outside of the lens business consumers want goggles that enable them to enjoy video at home or on the go.

"We see people wanting to use the goggles at home, for the kids in the back of the car or on a plane", Andreas Klavehn, senior sales and marketing manager for multimedia devices at Carl Zeiss.

That viewpoint is very different from competing eyewear maker Vuzix whose design and approach is heading more towards a heads up display approach. It has just announced a more sunglasses styled product at CES in Las Vegas.

The Zeiss Cinemizer plus has according to Klavehn been updated and improved over the original Zeiss Cinemizer video eyewear released last year in Germany.

The Cinemizer combines high-resolution LCD screens with individual diopter focus adjustment (-3.5 to +3.5D) allowing for users who wear glasses to still focus on the screen. The eyewear also adds on-ear headphones and the ability to override them with your own headphones.

Klavehn believes the true success will rest in 3D video "once content becomes widely available".

Carl Zeiss says it is actively lobbying Hollywood studios to offer consumer versions of the 3D movies they are creating. Of 5545 (indoor) cinemas in the US, there are 1068 3D capable screens, which are showing a rapidly growing number of 3D movies. But currently there are very few options to bring the 3D experience into the consumer realm.

The Cinemizer plus will be available in the USA, UK and Germany from March 2009 with an expected price of a rather expensive £300.

What Advances in Eye Care and Eyewear Can We Expect in 2009?

Researchers are working on liquid-based lenses for use as implanted contact lenses, cataract surgery lenses and general vision correction. Like plastic and glass, liquid can bend light rays to help eyes achieve precise focus.
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin may have suffered defeat as a vice presidential candidate in 2008. But in 2009 we expect her famous rectangular eyeglasses to endure as a fashion trend.

Soon you may be able to switch from dark sunglasses to clear lenses simply by touching a control in your eyeglass frame.
By introducing corrected genes to replace defective ones, eye doctors may be able to cure inherited forms of blinding eye diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa.

Artificial implants that stimulate light-sensitive cells in the retina of the eye are showing promise. With continued development, these retinal implants may improve vision for people with eye damage from diseases such as macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

Soon people with presbyopia may be able to wear electronically controlled multifocal eyeglasses with powers that adjust instantly for clear vision at different distances. The lenses will create a larger field of view and eliminate many of the optical limitations of current bifocals, trifocals and progressive lenses.

If final FDA approval occurs, soon you may be able to purchase a product that stimulates eyelash growth for cosmetic purposes. It’s based on a glaucoma drug, which has the hair growth side effect.

Contact lenses may soon serve as a drug delivery system for people suffering from eye allergies, glaucoma or other eye conditions that require frequent use of eye drop medication. The lenses will release the drugs onto the surface of the eye in a controlled, timed-release fashion and eliminate the common problem of people forgetting to use their eye drop medicines.
Chemically treated eyeglass lenses that automatically change tints in sunlight or shade are becoming more sophisticated, and these light-sensitive (or "photochromic") lenses will be offered in more colors.

If you need cataract surgery in the future, you'll likely have more access to different kinds of artificial lenses that can provide vision at all distances simultaneously. Most current cataract lenses provide sharp focus only at one distance, such as far or near.

Contact lenses with built-in microsensors that monitor eye pressure soon may help glaucoma patients monitor their eye pressure at home, just as patients with high blood pressure and diabetes can self-monitor their diseases between doctor visits with blood pressure and blood glucose monitors.
Sophisticated ways of measuring how the eye sees may mean that your eye exams will be more automated and instantaneous, making conventional eye charts obsolete.

The struggling U.S. economy will continue to affect the LASIK and other corrective surgery market in 2009. But LASIK's loss is eyewear's gain: many people who were considering refractive surgery will continue wearing contacts or purchase stylish eyeglasses instead.

Wavefront optical technology increasingly will be used to create contact lenses and eyeglasses that produce sharper vision than currently available lenses. These advanced lenses will enable many wearers to see significantly better than 20/20.