Christian Dior Sunglasses… By Tura, not Optyl.
The cover image for this post is Christian Dior. I wonder how many people familiar with the brand know he was an actual person? Seriously. I wonder how many of those are familiar with...
Author: Moss Lipow
Frame of the Week: The first Christian Dior optyl sunglasses 6/6/14
As far as I know these were the first Christian Dior sunglasses made of optyl, the miracle resin that was supposed to supplant cellulose acetate. They date from about 1969. Wilhelm Anger, the inventor...
Where have I seen those “new” Dior sunglasses before?
Compare and contrast the new Diors: With these Sol Amors, which were the cover image of my book: Seeing the resemblance took me aback somewhat. I stopped at the Solstice store when I spotted...
Why exactly were aviator sunglasses so popular after WWII? The history of aviator sunglasses Part 6
The earlier installments in this series are at the links below: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 This installment largely consists of a nagging thought I’ve had. I remember once...
How did boring eyewear condemn a man to 5 consecutive life sentences?
From the April 7th 1990 Philadelphia Inquirer: It was a marriage from hell. John List wasn’t the only one in the family who was mentally ill. So was his wife, Helen, according to a...
The Golden Age of Thick Plastic Eyeglasses – and its end…
One of my favorite periods of 20th Century style occurred from the later 1950s through the mid 1960s. Men’s fashion especially was crisp, sleek and modern. It was the heyday of strong acetate eyeglass...
The sad plight of 1920s bohemians in eyeglasses: A case study featuring Edith Head and Foujita.
It wasn’t until the 20th Century that certain celebrated people began appearing for whom eyewear was at the center of their personal style. I’m not counting Teddy Roosevelt and his pince nez because the...
Eyewear of the week, May 29th 2014
Although the first Optyl sunglasses made for Christian Dior was a combination frame of sorts (for the record it was huge and amazing with a stamped metal paisley frontpiece) the first decade or so...
The mysterious life and death of the first Playboy Playmate in glasses
I was thinking today: who was the first woman in eyewear I can remember that struck me as deeply sexy? I almost immediately recalled a Playboy Playmate from the 1960s, smiling, bookish looking, hair...
What are “Birth Control Glasses”?
I can’t add anything to this Wikipedia entry: “GI glasses are eyeglasses issued by the American military to its service members. Dysphemisms for them include the most common birth control glasses and variants. At...
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