My last roundup of the best vintage eyewear shops on Etsy is here, but since I wrote it some excellent other players have entered the field. I would particularly like to spotlight the shop Peace Love Eyeglasses, which has some excellent quirky pairs from a variety of eras. Cat’s eye styles (which I think are poised for a major comeback, mostly thanks to Mad Men…I’m starting to see new cat’s eye pairs turning up in boutique shops) are abundant, but also the oversize/rounded “granny” styles of the 70′s and 80′s and some interestingly-shaped, off-the-beaten-track pairs. There are plenty of embellished frames, and the eyeglasses have all been well-photographed with measurements provided. Go check out this lovely shop – I know I will, since I’m due for a new pair myself.

Once again I cull content from Jezebel. This old TV commercial for Sears Optical is a gem – a parade of women wearing disconcertingly similar oversize styles.

As a regular reader of Jezebel, I was delighted to see this roundup of iconic four-eyed ladies. Although perhaps I am part of the problem when it comes to the over-popularization of glasses as a fashion accessory:

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.

Here are some recently-released photographs of Marilyn Monroe (limited-edition prints are available for purchase). Note especially her black (plastic?) cat’s eye frames. They give her an air of intellect, sass, and mystery, no?

I am a bit late to the game on this one, since I don’t read Stuff White People Like with any regularity anymore. I was still amused to see that the Ray Ban Wayfarer (still the #1 traffic driver to this site) has officially entered into the White Canon.

White people love these Ray-Bans because they were very popular in the 1960s and the 1980s. This gives them a historical precedent and allows white people to classify them as “timeless.” That way when they purchase these sunglasses they can talk about how they were inspired by the fashion and music of these bygone eras. When a white person says this, you should just nod and mention how they look like young Johnny Cash, a dead Beach Boy, Audrey Hepburn or an extra from a John Hughes movie. This will make them happy and likely to give you their old, expensive sunglasses that you can sell for a significant profit.

I am tempted to say that since they’ve now been blogged in this manner, people seeking to be cool shouldn’t wear them anymore. But his argument – that white people love retro – goes for just about any of the styles talked about on this site, and, indeed, the entire concept of the site itself. Still, my Indian/British next door neighbor has a tortoiseshell pair and they look awesome. Make of that what you will.

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!

This 1960′s style of eyewear is starting to pop up everywhere – black plastic frames in a “Buddy Holly” shape, similar to the Shuron Sidewinder or the Ray-Ban Wayfarer. They look absolutely smashing on Colin Firth in this promotional photo for A Single Man, set in LA in 1962.

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.

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

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)

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.