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There was a time — like, six years ago — when wearing big glasses was still an issue. When someone would liken you to Carrie Donovan or Anne Slater or some other kooky icon. Now, they see you and shrug — American Apparel, whatever — and turn away. Or, worse, they say, “Lisa Loeb!” And for those of us who’ve been into lenscraft for some time, it’s demoralizing. It’s enough, in fact, for me to break down and get the damn PRK.

Also, this somewhat sneering passage, devoted to people who don’t wear glasses, wearing glasses:

Has she ever pushed her specs repeatedly up her nose in an especially stuffy interview room, reached for them only to encounter the paradox of she who cannot see, cannot find her glasses? Slept on them or stepped on them? Wondered when to take them off pre-makeout? No, no, no and no. And you can tell that she and her specs are not One.

I’m a girl who wears glasses, for real – had ‘em since age eight, broken them, am perpetually on the hunt for the perfect cleaning cloth, had an ugly enormous pink pair when I was ten, and so on and so on. But I’m not opposed to eyewear-as-fashion – I don’t think my cred is under attack. In the age of contact lenses and lasers, the line between people who “need glasses” and people who don’t is blurrier than ever. And, of course, anyone seeking out vintage pairs is, at least in part, donning a costume and playing a role. But I know what she means. Me and my glasses have been through a lot together, and it stings a little to see “the lifestyle” reduced to an accessory.

My favourite in the Jezebel list? Carrie Donovan.

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This was the first pair of vintage glasses I ever purchased. They’re aluminum, in a cat’s eye shape and with some flower engravings on the temples. The brand name is ArtCraft – I got them from an Etsy shop that now seems to be defunct. They sat on the shelf for a while because I was too lazy/cheap to get prescription lenses put in, but this week I finally got them lensed at Wal-Mart and they look awesome. I’ve already received lots of compliments on them, and they definitely stand out in a crowd. I hope you like them!

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These particular glasses, apparently, are actually designed by Tom Ford, the director and erstwhile Gucci creative director. I combed the internet to find some available for sale – these come pretty close.

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Excellent online vintage eyewear merchant Fifties Frames has a pretty awesome flickr photostream. Tons of interesting styles. Check it out!

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This website documents the travels and many, many wearers of a pair of eyeglasses that once belonged to documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles. Along with his late brother David, Albert Maysles is responsible for the documentaries Gimme Shelter, Salesman, and Grey Gardens.

Jess Search, the new owner of the glasses, says of them:

I can tell you that there is something realyl really unusual about these frames. Everyone who puts them on is totally transformed. It’s blinding, NO ONE LOOKS LIKE THEMSELVES WHEN THEY WEAR THEM (hmm unless they only look truly themselves when they wear them?). But the point is that anyone could rob a bank in Al’s glasses and their own mother couldn’t finger them from the cctv evidence. Maybe that’s why people like wearing them so much.

The glasses themselves appear to be a Buddy Holly-esque style, and if you ever needed more proof that they look cool on many different people who are not Buddy Holly, check the gallery.

(via Jezebel)

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Leon Trotsky: Style Icon

Yes, the “style icon” label for Leon Trotsky is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. He would almost certainly reject such a bourgeois capitalist pursuit as fashion. Even so, the style of glasses most associated with him is worn by undergraduate wannabe-intellectuals everywhere (and you have to admit, they do lend a certain scholarly air to his appearance).

The vintage fashion world is sometimes over-focused on mid-century styles, especially the 1950′s and 1960′s (fanned, of course, by Mad Men). We’re much less nostalgic, it seems, for earlier in the century (and with two world wars, who can blame us). But those decades were full of interesting sartorial choices. Let’s have a look at another pair of round glasses, here worn by Sigmund Freud:

Freud's round glasses

And, of course, William Butler Yeats

(he of “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity”)

Yeats also favours round spectacles.

All giants among men, all historically/artistically influential. Something about these frames points to an inner greatness. I think this is the look Harry Potter was going for.

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Mad Men's Harry Crane wearing browline glasses

With the success of Mad Men, many people associate the classic men’sbrowline style with the character of Harry Crane on the TV show. I, however, will always associate them with the character of J. J. Hunsecker in the movie Sweet Smell of Success.

These eyeglasses, most popular in the 1950′s, have a heavy plastic frame along the brow (hence the name “browline”) with metal rims around the bottom. They typically also have horn rims, and have a distinguished, almost professorial look. There are women’s versions of the browline style, and they often take on a cat’s eye shape. Some variations of the browline style omit the bottom metal rim in favour of a nylon wire holding the lens in place.

Today we tend to refer to frames that only partially encircle the lens as “semi-rimless”. Most of the semi-rimless frames made today are designed to be unobtrusive, without the prominent top frame. Shuron, however, still makes browline frames in the classic style.

JJ Hunsecker Wearing Browline Glasses

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I’ve posted before about my purchase from Fabulous Fanny’s, but they deserve a whole post. An unassuming shop in the East Village of Manhattan that specializes in eyeglasses, they also sell antique glasses, including pince-nez, and various other eyewear oddities such as antique chains. They also have an excellent collection of vintage sunglasses. Some of their catalog tends toward the costume-y, and some of the frames aren’t vintage but rather new frames modeled after older styles.

If you’re not in New York, they also have an online store with a very wide selection.

They’re not opticians – the vintage frames are mostly sold without lenses (except for some of the antiques), and they sent me to Optical 88 in Chinatown to have my prescription added. However, they do offer services that a regular optician wouldn’t, like replacing missing parts from antique spectacles or the custom addition of rhinestones to your frames.

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