So I finally got sick of looking through scratched-up, out-of-date lenses and went to the optometrist this afternoon to get my glasses updated.
I wound up buying two pairs of glasses because I couldn’t decide which frame I liked better. (Hey — cut me some slack. I used to be an optician. I love shopping for glasses the way some women love shopping for shoes.)
Ron hasn’t seen them yet, so I’m posting them here:
These are my bifocals. Ridiculously hip, non? I normally go for tortoiseshell, but I wanted something heavier this time, and I sort of dug those crazy pink and purplish stripes on the sides. Goofy, yes, but kind of fun, and they should hold up well.
If this frame didn’t exist already, I would design it. I don’t know who came up with the idea to cross-breed cateyes with rimless frames, but I think it’s brilliant. And check out this great little detail:
I was actually wandering through the dispensary, asking myself, “WWREW?” (What Would Ray Eames Wear?) when I spotted these. That crazy geometric pattern printed on the top half of the eyewire was too Mid-Century Modern to pass up. The lenses are too shallow to accommodate a bifocal, but I don’t care; if all else fails, I can have them tinted pink and make killer sunglasses out of them.
On a totally unrelated note, it is exactly three weeks until the Cubs’ pitchers and catchers report to spring training. 🙂
Emily
Red Fork Hippie 
I like them, especially the rimless ones. I looked at rimless when I got mine a few months back, but as long as your nephew is still grabbing glasses off faces, no-can-do. He’s getting better about that, but still goes after them if he’s bored or just in a teasing mood.
…it is exactly three weeks until the Cubs’ pitchers and catchers report to spring training.
And now you’ll be able to see them! 🙂
Are you going to start singing, “One-ringy-dingy….Two-ringy-dingy…” when you make phone calls now?
Sweet! I’ve got a similar rimless pair, but without the geometric print.
And my Cardinals report on Valentines Day. How appropriate is that?
I love that little pattern. I need new ones too, and have been looking for frames with a googie influence…maybe little boomerangs (ala skylark formica) as a subtle part of the design.
Boomerangs would be awesome. Or Sputnik-looking dingbats. I would LOVE a pair of awesome-looking cateyes with little dingbats printed all over them.
I think I missed my calling — I should have been a frame designer. By the time I’d been in a dispensary for two or three years, I’d come up with a whole collection of frame designs to solve various optical and/or durability problems I’d discovered with the existing models. Some were just little tweaks to existing frames, and several were my own modern riffs on retro styles. I could probably dream up a whole line of Deco-influenced frames, if only someone would manufacture them….
Em, you should try to work Antiques Roadshow into your almost non-existent T.V. time. They’re getting more and more mid-century modern pieces showing up for appraisal. Last night we saw a bench made by a Japanese American man whose name escapes me, but it started with an “N”. The seat of the bench was made of an irregular slab of wood that still had the bark on the edge. Wasn’t something we liked, but I bet you would have. The back was Windsor spindles. The lady who brought it said it was made for her dad and she also had the drawing the maker had furnished asking if it was all right to go ahead and build it. He got $375 for making it; the appraisal was in multiple thousands.