Girls Who Wear Glasses: A Tribute
LatestBuying glasses. Like marriage, it is not an estate to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly and in the fear of looking stupid. But the rewards are great:
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.
Yes, we all know the rules that apply to face shape and width and all that jazz, or if we don’t, there are a million web-sites happy to instruct us. As even the most casual of sunglasses-sporters knows, there’s no substitute for trying on a pair (or, as is generally the case, pair after pair after pair in Fabulous Fanny’s endless drawers) and realizing how much difference a small gradation of color or line can make. (I admire those who buy their frames online, but would never dare, personally.) And we all know that when all’s said and done, even if you go for no-fills, high-glare, used-plastic, it’s going to be an investment, and for many of us a major part of our presentation.
This, for me, is really what the glasses companies get wrong. There’s a big difference between a woman who wears glasses and a woman with a pair of glasses on her face, and we’re not idiots. 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.
It’s at time like these that we need to be reminded of specs icons.