So. You may well ask why I felt the need to buy this little curiosity when I saw it on ebay a while ago? I'm not completely to blame as there was somebody standing over me urging me on to bid.
I think the thing that swung it is that it contains my first pair of glasses which I loathed beyond measure. Yes, the pale blue pair, bottom right (giving my age away again...). Children just don't know they're born today. I've seen the great choice of trendy frames in the opticians! I had a choice of brown (boys) pink (girls) or blue (unisex) And everybody knew you were wearing NHS specs if you wore one of these colours. For shame.
The arms had something like a ball bearing at the end. At least, it felt like a ball bearing after you'd worn them all day and were left with a huge red crater in the back of your ear when you took them off. And yes, I was called 'speccy four eyes'. Children are so imaginative!
I've obviously got some perverse attachment to those glasses though or else I wouldn't have felt the need to buy this opticians sample.
It's yet to find a home in the house. Maybe I should hang it by the front door, it would certainly be a talking point.
Thankfully, as a grown up, I can wear what I like, as long as I have very deep pockets. What with eye tests, glasses, prescription sunglasses and prescription cycling glasses I need a second job to pay for them all AND it's all times two as Mr TVL is similarly afflicted eyesight wise.
I never imagined I would buy specs over the internet though as I'm VERY fussy and know as soon as I try something on whether it's me or not. I hate schlepping around the High Street at the best of times and this year I just couldn't find anything I liked. When did glasses get so blingy? To cut a long story short, after lots of searching and to-ing and fro-ing and measuring old glasses against potential new ones I narrowed it down and took the plunge.
And I was so pleased, I went back a few weeks later and bought a second pair!
So I'm alternating between the round tortoiseshell ones which are particularly good for the vintage look when attending 40's events and the like and these...
which being a subtle cat-eye style lend themselves to a 50's look but are not so full-on vintagey they can't be worn with 'everyday' clothes.
They were both from Lensway at the insanely cheap price of £29.00 all in (thanks Money Saving Expert!) This is an offer price they have from time to time although I notice the tortoisehell ones are permanently at that price now. They both fit fine and so far I've had no problems so I'm a convert. I shall never buy from an opticians again.
By the way, if you have a favourite or vintage pair of glasses that need replacement lenses I'd recommended Specs on the net. I use them for the lenses in my cheap and cheerful cycling glasses. Single vision lenses cost £12 and that includes the return delivery so you just have the cost of sending them in. They're very quick and again, I've yet to encounter any problems.
When I think of 'glasses' and 'vintage' in the same sentence I imagine trying to look something like this...
whereas in reality I actually look a lot more like this...
