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According to Chris: NA is now super-trendy and some of the biggest deals are done in

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According to Chris: "NA is now super-trendy and some of the biggest deals are done in AA. I was headhunted at a meeting and also met my girlfriend there."At NA, meetings have become as cliquey as the K-Bar. The beautiful people tend to gravitate to classes, and the phrase "well bunny" has been coined for a good-looking recovering addict. In London's trendy Notting Hill there is an NA meeting dubbed the "Cocktail Party", a stylish crowd with an "attitude of gratitude" The meeting opens with the slogan "Welcome to NA" Or, as members joke: "Welcome to the middle classes.". Sunglasses used to be a mere afterthought on the fashion front. They received scant mention in style bibles and magazines, being nothing more than a last-minute buy at the airport along with a Frisbee, a tube of Factor 15 sun lotion and a bottle of Quick Tan But not any more. It may have taken some time for us Brits to catch on - we are a nation suffering semi-permanent sun famine, after all - but sunglasses are now considered a wardrobe essential, a sign of self-expression and, since fashion designers began lending their names and logos, the most powerful of summer status symbols.

That said, we still wouldn't dream of looking all Italian, coolly speeding around on a Vespa with no head protection save a pair of Dolce & Gabbana shades clamped to our faces. Nor do we aspire to the innate vanity of the French, who are told at a tender age (boys as well as girls) not to venture outside during the summer months without wearing protective (and achingly stylish) eyewear to prevent squinting or, quelle horreur, wrinkles. That's not to say that we don't love our shades. We may be utterly hopeless with our summer wardrobes - what's the point in investing effort and expense in a bunch of clothes that may well be worn for only a couple of weeks abroad? And we may be useless at looking after our pasty complexions - preferring to fry ourselves a shade of prickly pink, than patiently paste on the lotion.In fact, as a nation we are completely at odds with a stylish summer lifestyle Face it. We choose egg-and-chips-twice rather than a healthy portion of tortilla; we prefer a round of beers or sickly sweet cocktails to a fine bottle of beaujolais; and we would rather buy a tacky T-shirt that reads "My brother went to Majorca and all I got was this bloody T- shirt", than a local hand-crafted lace tablecloth.Fear not, though.

There is one thing we can get right in summer - arguably over and above our stylish European neighbours - and that's our sunglasses.Perhaps it is because we are avid film watchers and have consequently learned that a simple, or indeed not so simple, pair of shades wields power. We know, for instance, that a pair of sunglasses can conjure up mystery - Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe and just about any other screen siren you care to mention was never without her shades - incognito and glamorous in one fell swoop.Today's stars have also learnt the trick; so much so, that some are more recognisable with their sunglasses than without. Take Anna Wintour, the editor of American Vogue, a superstar in the fashion world, whose facial features are barely known because she hides behind vast black blinkers. Some say this is because she doesn't want to be seen to have nodded off on fashion's front row; others claim it is because she doesn't want to give anything away to the competition. Whatever the reason, sunglasses obviously serve more than the purpose for which they were originally intended; bad hangovers instantly spring to mind.Ultimately, though, shades are cool. Ray-Ban, in particular, the best- known sunglasses producer, has proved this time and again by having its product strategically placed on celluloid. When Tom Cruise appeared in Top Gun as the hero fighter pilot we knew he would save the day and get the girl, because he looked so slick and capable in his Ray-Ban Aviators.

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