Wearing Glasses

[staffslad]

Re: Wearing Glasses

I wore black NHS glasses from the age of about 10. I may have had the round, wire-framed ones prior to that as well. Back then--1970s--those were the only ones we could afford. There were no optician chains and no advertising allowed. Around 1979 I got some metal ones. Then about four years later some different silver metal ones, followed two years later by the same design but in gold. From about 1986 I would interchange those two pairs each time I needed new lenses, and stayed like that for about 14 years using those identical pairs.

In the early 90s I thought I would try contact lenses. My eye condition meant I couldn't wear those soft plastic ones, instead I had to have the hard type and it was like having a piece of grit in each eye all the time so I went back to normal glasses--my trusty gold or silver framed pair. Another thing about the contact lenses was they were a devil to remove. The optician gave me a tool--a kind of stick with a sucker on the end that I had to press onto the lens and then wiggle about until they became loose.

[zabadak]

Re: Wearing Glasses

Since having bionic eyes installed to replace my worn-out, cataract-ridden old ones, I can see through walls (actually, I need glasses to read, which wasn't the case before...)!

[Danniella]

Re: Wearing Glasses

My reading glasses are similar to the girls above, i can fasten my buttons though while wearing them!!

[George 1978]

Re: Wearing Glasses

She was the prettiest one I found find ..

You don't read The Sun (or look at the pictures) do you?

[Zincubus]

Re: Wearing Glasses

That looks like a picture that you would see on the wall inside a Dolland and Aitchison's in the early 1990s.

I don't need glasses to see that she hasn't got a bra on.

She was the prettiest one I found find ..


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[George 1978]

Re: Wearing Glasses

You decide

That looks like a picture that you would see on the wall inside a Dolland and Aitchison's in the early 1990s.

I don't need glasses to see that she hasn't got a bra on.

[Arran]

Re: Wearing Glasses

In fact when I see photos of myself and others from the 90's I feel that those rounded wire framed glasses have become a key marker of the decade. Nobody really wears them now.

You're right. In the 1980s squarish glasses with metal frames and a bar above the nose bridge were common for both kids and adults but they were largely replaced by round glasses with metal frames in the 1990s. In the late 1980s there seemed to be this brief trend for 'yuppie' glasses with plastic frames, judging from videos, but they were nowhere to be seen in the 1990s.

[Arran]

Re: Wearing Glasses

C524 are the chunky NHS glasses I'm referring to in post #2. The two metal frames seem much rarer in the 1970s and 80s judging by school photos. You could get C524 with pink and blue frames as well as the more common black and brown.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Wearing Glasses

I didn't need glasses until the 90's, but my school photos have one or two children in the infamous NHS frames - always black for boys and either clear pink or clear light blue for girls. My first pair had the typical wire frames of the time. In fact when I see photos of myself and others from the 90's I feel that those rounded wire framed glasses have become a key marker of the decade. Nobody really wears them now. I remember the key change in glasses style occurring in the 00's with people like Nick Robinson blazing a trail on his news reports and Gok Wan promoting them in the fashion world.

[Zincubus]

Re: Wearing Glasses

If you watch the ITV3 episodes of Coronation Street at the moment, have a look at the differences between the characters of Curly Watts and Deirdre Barlow - Curly is a door-to-door salesman, while Deirdre is a councillor. Now, I would say that Curly was the weaker one in comparison. Mind you, I thought that women wearing glasses are less sexy than when they don't wear them - this is why a lot of women opt for contact lenses.

You decide



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[George 1978]

Re: Wearing Glasses

I'm always intrigued as to why a bloke wearing glasses is sometimes seen as weakness yet put a pair on a woman with a certain look and they're regarded as very 'sexy' - ie the office secretary ..

If you watch the ITV3 episodes of Coronation Street at the moment, have a look at the differences between the characters of Curly Watts and Deirdre Barlow - Curly is a door-to-door salesman, while Deirdre is a councillor. Now, I would say that Curly was the weaker one in comparison. Mind you, I thought that women wearing glasses are less sexy than when they don't wear them - this is why a lot of women opt for contact lenses.

[Arran]

Re: Wearing Glasses

NHS frames from around 1980. The designs had not changed since the late 1940s.

[Zincubus]

Re: Wearing Glasses

I'm always intrigued as to why a bloke wearing glasses is sometimes seen as weakness yet put a pair on a woman with a certain look and they're regarded as very 'sexy' - ie the office secretary ..

I've seen that quite a few celebs are wearing glasses with ZERO rated lenses as fashion accessories


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[George 1978]

Re: Wearing Glasses

In the mid 1990s it seemed ironically to have them, with Chris Evans, Jarvis Cocker et al wearing pairs.

And of course, we had a PM who wore them as well, although it was his grey hair that he mostly got stick for rather than wearing glasses.

[George 1978]

Re: Wearing Glasses

No offence, but those chunky NHS glasses used to ruin many school photos from the 1970s and 80s. They didn't seem to exist in the 1990s and the glasses that kids wore then were far more respectable in comparison. When did they stop making them?

Was it really true that kids could smash them up then get a new pair free of charge - the cycle repeats?

School photos probably looked horrific when one had to wear National Health glasses - my first one in the Infants was embarrassing, but my parents insisted on getting a spare print. Since the 1990s they have been associated with trainspotters and those who wear fur-trimmed parka coats. Regarding the 1990s, I was referring to a metal-rimmed pair that I wore, which was an improvement on my previous pair.