When I worked at this designer/hipster store in Toronto a few years ago, I really saw the trend for wearing glasses go up. It was a way to look cool, smart and cute, and it completed a fashion look. Girls were all wearing big glasses with dark rims to look cute in an fringe way, but I was always left out of this trend since I have perfect vision. Yes, by default, I never had glasses growing up or anytime because I didn’t need them. I was not achieving my lack of eye apparel look by wearing contacts either as some people assumed. The truth was the only glasses I could ever wear were non-prescription “fake” ones that didn’t come out until recent years.
Rewind even further back in time to my art college years, when I was quite shy and not very confident. I worried sometimes about how I would be perceived by classmates. I even contemplated then, before glasses were in, to wear fake glasses to help me to look “smarter” among my peers. So now that the fashion trends have given their permission to wear fake glasses, I have recently bought a pair of optical quality non-prescription glasses, they are scratch resistant and uv protecting. And well, I kinda like them. I really have to get used to wearing them though. I have been naked faced all of my years!
I read somewhere that eyeglass wearers always get protection from glare and uv because they wear their prescription everyday for vision. Us visually perfect people never get that kind of protection on an ongoing basis. We get all the rain, wind, snow and sun in our eyes, and the full glare of our computer screens. So o ther than glasses giving a fashion boost and vision correction, might they also give a health advantage too? That’s not fair to those of us that face the harsh world with an unprotected naked eye day in and day out!
Glasses are seen as cool, but on the other hand, I also think back about how that is not always the case. Most gorgeous gals in mainstream movies/music today and in the past don’t wear vision corrective apparatuses. I think technically, not wearing glasses is still seen as the norm when describing a good looking person. But still, it is nice for me to see the success of hip and happening fashionistas that are just cool enough to pull off the glasses look and propel a trend that has fringe beauty appeal. And with fashion’s green light, I can now participate too with my fake eye glasses on days that I feel like it!
What do you think? Do you like the look of glasses? Are they fashionable? Or would you rock no glasses/contacts any day?
Dreamy Reveries: a journal of make-up and fashion 