Edwina Ings-Chambers on the Oakley 'Thump'

Edwina Ings-Chambers is the deputy fashion editor for The Financial Times.

With a great name like hers, could there ever have been any doubt about her ultimate destination?

She usually writes about clothes, designers and things fabulous.

A self-described technophobe and "classic kind of girl," she tried out Oakley's new self-contained, wireless audio sunglasses recently, then wrote a rave review which appeared in the February 19 paper.

Now, it should be noted that the Thump has been pilloried by many of those who've reviewed it.

Perhaps we need to take a second look, as our favorite now-disgraced Wall Street cheerleader, Jack Grubman, was urged to do with by Sandy Weill as a condition of Weill's picking up the phone to get Grubman's kids into an exclusive pre-school program.

Here's the review.

A Sound System For Looking Cool

Walkmans, Discmans, iPods - we've known for decades that we all love plugging into our own personal soundtrack to add melodrama to the humdrum.

The Tube's just the Tube until you're listening to Carly Simon belting out "Let the River Run": then, suddenly, you're Melanie Griffith on an upward career trajectory.

Still, personally, I've only ever dipped in and out of this type of daydreaming: I prefer my own imagination - even my own humming - for a soundtrack as I commute through life.

Who needs an electronic umbilical cord to add to all the other ties that bind?

But lately I've felt the need for a little escapism to - as Sister Sledge would say - get lost in music.

So when the folks at Oakley told me about their new Thump sunglasses they sounded like the answers to my prayers.

Cool design, state of the art sunglass technology, and an incorporated digital music system.

In truth, though, I'm a bit of a technophobe.

Downloading, uploading, any kind of loading leaves me in fear.

I feel I should check the household insurance before I do anything - I might hit the wrong button and fuse the entire apartment.

I imagine taking down the whole national grid by some ridiculous techno misdemeanour.

So once I'd borrowed the glasses, I was initially crippled by fear about doing anything but simply wearing them until I begged my flatmate for help.

Turned out my non-stop musical interlude was just a few mouse clicks away; the programs required were already right there on my laptop waiting to assist me.

And the downloading of songs took less time than boiling an egg.

OK, maybe a couple of eggs, consecutively.

So what about wearing them?

Well, I was afraid the stark black colour and groovy design (they look as though they should only be worn by snowboarders) would be too strong for me - I'm more of a classic kind of girl.

But they worked surprisingly well on my face.

And the lenses give a clear peripheral view - none of that almost getting run over because of blind spot nonsense.

They even flip up, though I admit, I prefer to just take the things off.

As for the music, well it's bliss.

There are two small earplugs attached to the arms of the glasses that are completely moveable and swivel around so they fit perfectly inside your ears.

The only problem with this is that as soon as you take the glasses off and chuck them in a bag the earplugs move again, so you must re-adjust them for each use, and this can't be done as you walk (I've tried and the things just don't sit properly on the bridge of your nose).

Back on the plus side, the best bit of all is the lack of wires.

All controls are attached to the arms, which means nothing gets tangled up in clothes.

I had really thought these glasses would be for boys but it turned out not to be the case: the lack of things getting caught up in my hair and the ease of just picking up and walking were qualities I'd underestimated.

For technos, the musical memory is 128MB or 256MB.

That doesn't mean much to me, but I already have four albums stored on them and there's room left.

In the world of iPods that may not seem much but it's more than enough for me.

Now I can watch and go.