Glasses: Encyclopedia II - Glasses - Glasses as a fashion accessory

Glasses - Glasses as a fashion accessory

Glasses are often regarded as unattractive, and many people prefer to wear contact lenses for that reason. Contact lenses also provide much improved peripheral vision.

On the other hand, many people are attracted to people who wear glasses, and glasses are available in a wide range of styles, materials, and even designer labels.

Glasses can be a major part of personal expression, from the extravagance of Elton John and Dame Edna Everage, from Groucho Marx to John Denver to Lisa Loeb all the way to the varied professional personas of eyeglass-wearing knowledge workers.

For some celebrities, glasses form part of their identity. American Senator Barry Goldwater continued to wear lensless horn-rimmed spectacles after being fitted with contact lenses because he was not recognizable without his trademark glasses. British soap star Anne Kirkbride had the same problem: her character on Coronation Street, Deirdre Barlow, became so well-known for her big frames that she was expected to wear them at social gatherings and in international tours, even though Kirkbride has always worn contact lenses. Drew Carey continued to wear glasses for the same reason after getting corrective laser eye surgery. British comedic actor Eric Sykes, who became profoundly deaf as an adult, wears glasses that contain no lenses, but are in fact a bone-conducting hearing aid. Masaharu Morimoto wears glasses to separate his professional persona as a chef from his stage persona as Iron Chef Japanese. And of course John Lennon wore his round "granny glasses" from some of his time with the Beatles to his assassination in 1980.

In popular culture, glasses were all the disguise Superman and Wonder Woman needed to hide in plain view as alter egos Clark Kent and Diana Prince, respectively.

An example of halo effect is seen in the stereotype that those who wear glasses are intelligent or, especially in teen culture, even geeks and nerds. This conception probably comes from an era when most people were illiterate and the first people to wear glasses were those who did a lot of reading. Some people who find that wearing glasses may look nerdy turn to contact lenses instead, especially under peer pressure.

Another unpopular aspect of glasses is their inconvenience. Even though the late-20th century saw the creation of light frames, such as those made of titanium, very flexible frames, and new lens materials and optical coatings, glasses can still cause problems during rigorous sports. The lenses themselves can also become greasy or trap vapour when eating hot food or swimming or walking in rain, reducing visibility significantly. Scraping, fracturing, or breakage of the lenses require time-consuming and costly professional repair, though modern plastic lenses are almost indestructible and very scratch-resistant.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Glasses as a fashion accessory", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki