It’s true…I have a thing for eyeglasses. I started wearing them when I was eighteen and it was at that time I decided that if I had to wear them they might as well be fun! It’s been that way ever since. A few years after I got my first pair of glasses, I made a new friend who just happened to be an optometrist who, of course, had an optician and lab onsite. Steven carried every cool manufacturer that was in the vision wear arena and so it was fun to shop once a month and see what was new. Since I was such great advertising for his practice, Steve gave me a “family” discount! So you can imagine just how big my collection was over the years. I guess it would be fair to say that this relationship, friendship aside, was similar to the blogger/influencer/collab relationships we see so prevalent today in social media.
As
my vision changed over the years, I had the lenses in old frames switched and continued to add new. I had also added vintage frames that I scrounged around for at the Rose Bowl and
Orange County Flea Markets in the day. Steve was pure genius at cutting lenses
to fit the varied shapes of all of those frames so basically I was spoiled
rotten. This past weekend, I was going through some moving boxes that I hadn’t unpacked
since I moved here from NYC ten years ago! I know, it is a bit strange that much
of my New York life is still packed away safely in boxes in storage. (Visions,
or maybe they are actually nightmares, of Storage Wars and Hoarders pop into my head!)
Pack rat
that I am, I saved every pair of glasses that I ever owned even from my teen
years (hello Ray Ban). Sadly, at the time of my divorce in the 80s, in some
wicked ploy to get even, most of my possessions were “taken” from my then
storage spot. (But, no…I don’t harbor a grudge. Bullshit!) The good news is – a
few pairs that had been in my personal stuff I moved with me were spared an untimely death. So I'm sharing a few that I found.
Top pair in the selfie is a fun little number by Fiorucci
(made in Italy) and are a dark tortoise with brown to peach tinted lenses from
the late 70s. I'm currently toying with the idea of having sunglasses lenses cut for these. Thoughts? The second style, in selfie number two, is still one of my favs – from the early 70s. Two
layers laminated together, light tortoise on top and clear blue underneath. All
of my lenses were tinted to blend with the frames and some even had engravings
and small crystals on the lenses. (Oh boy now that's snazzy...or not!) Did you know that glasses are far more than better vision and the frames? The tinting on
this tortoise pair was gradient moving from blue on top to peach on the bottom.
The light tint made the color of my eyes super bright and the peach color of the lenses gave me a healthy cheeky glow! And, when the sunlight reflected off the blue layer on the frames...well, magic is all I can say. If I had a dime for every complement I got on those glasses over the years I might not be sitting here penning this post!. And, finally, you might recognize these sunnies
from my Twitter pix – by Bucci from the late 70s and made in either Hermosa Beach or Manhattan Beach in SoCal. I still have a thing for red glasses and am in the market for just the right pair as we speak.
It
is fun to watch the cyclic nature of fashion – with all the sunglasses and
glasses I see in the world today via blogs and social media, I am inspired to
go on the hunt for more of my old frames and perhaps share them here at some
point in the future. Keep your fingers crossed that somewhere I find my 20+ year old Armani pair that I lost several months ago. After all, who doesn’t like a Throwback Thursday post? I’m
also working on an addition to my collection, currently making a few
decisions on frames from Warby Parker – I love the business model of giving a
pair to someone in need for every pair sold. If you are not familiar with the
company, go to their site and check it out. And, no, this is not a sponsored
spot! I find the “fashion for good” platform admirable and so I strive to
support it whenever I can. Curious…do you wear specs or go with contacts
these days? If you do go for glasses how many pair are in your collection and
are you driven by trends or go for the classics or a little bit of both?
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