The nation's eyes aren't just on Gov. Sarah Palin — they're on her glasses.

It's been awhile since the optical business has been as charged by celebrity specs as it has by the rimless pair the vice presidential nominee wears most of the time. If she wins, it could rock the vision-care market, which totals $26.6 billion a year, says tracker Jobson Optical Research.
It's already shaking up the company that makes them.

"We keep getting calls from dealers who want to stock the exact shape and style that she's wearing," says Amy Hahn, vice president at Italee, the U.S. distributor of the frames designed by Kazuo Kawasaki, a Japanese industrial designer.

The Palin frame — minus the lenses — starts at a suggested $375. Depending on the type of lenses, the total package can run to $700.
"She's what's new, and consumers want what's new," says Dr. Joyce Brothers, the consumer psychologist. "But if she loses, you won't see many people in those glasses."

That still gives the eyeglass maker through Nov. 4 to cash in.
"Smart optometrists who don't carry the line should," says Gloria Nicola, senior editor at 20/20, an eyewear trade magazine. "If they can't get it quickly, she says, they should at least sell similar-looking brands.”
Matching the look won't be easy. Although the frames are sold at many optical boutiques, the shape of the strongly rectangular lenses was custom-made for Palin by Home Optics, an upscale retailer in Chugiak, Alaska.

Owner Joy Leedham went to Palin's home in late December and fitted her in her kitchen — where Palin considered nearly 300 frames. They narrowed it to five frames, and Palin's family helped pick the winner. The frame is Kawasaki's 704 series, and the color is 34 gray, Hahn says.

Palin is nearsighted and has slight astigmatism, Leedham says. She does not wear bifocal lenses.

Palin told Leedham that she owned seven pairs of glasses. The frames that Palin picked "help her look fashion-forward," Leedham says.
The Kawasaki frames are made from titanium and mounted via a screwless, tension system.

Similar but older versions of the frames have been worn by Colin Powell, David Letterman and Whoopi Goldberg, says Bart VanderVelde, national sales manager at Italee. But few celebs in glasses have set off this kind of frenzy, he says. "We're still wondering what to do if she gets elected."