Header image description: a picture of Jo with bleached hair. You can only see her face from the nose up. She wears gold, dual-rimmed glasses with blue and purple sections between the rims that make the frames look like a stained glass window.
Last summer, I worked for a film festival. My main duty during festival week was to be posted near the door: answering questions, checking people’s COVID-19 vaccination record, and distributing face masks. As guests searched their camera rolls for photos of vax cards, I liked to make small talk with them, often complimenting some aspect of their outfits. (Many of this festival’s attendees were Decidedly Cool People, so this was not empty, effusive flattery — the fits were fire.)
A coworker pointed out a running theme in my comments: “You always notice people’s glasses.”
It was true — many staff and audience members alike had great frames. When I scrolled through the organization’s Instagram a few days ago, I saw a variety of styles: funky aviators; tiny sunglasses; classic clear acetate; giant shades; color-tinted sunnies; big, multicolored, rounded frames. Sometimes folks’ glasses went with their outfits; sometimes the two fashionably clashed.
Either way, their frames enhanced the clothes they wore — and that, to me, is what glasses should do. Yes, prescription glasses are intended to correct your vision, but they are also an accessory. Think of glasses like a luxury watch or beloved piece of heirloom jewelry: a small adornment that has personal significance or is personalized for you. Sure, you wear these things most days (if not every day), but they’re part of how you present yourself to the world — just like the clothes you choose on a daily basis. So, as far as glasses go, why not have fun with them?
I’ve been thinking about glasses as fashion a lot recently. On October 10th, the Atlanta Hawks — my beloved hometown NBA team — played their first preseason game of the year. When I tuned in, the first thing I noticed was that head coach Quin Snyder got a new pair of frames in the offseason. Why did I immediately notice them? Because they’re kind of, well, impeccable.
As soon as I saw these glasses, I was obsessed. The red is bright and vivid, but because the color is so eye-catching, the construction is pretty simple: rounded acetate frames in a single, solid color. The shape fits his face perfectly and this particular shade of red works wonderfully with his skin tone. You know when you’re shopping with a friend and they ask your opinion on something they’ve tried on, and all you can say is: “That’s so you!” I don’t know Quin Snyder, but from literal face value, I can say that these frames are so him.
To me, these frames exemplify how a nice pair of eyewear can elevate even the simplest of looks. I mean, look at the picture above: he’s wearing a plain black polo and a simple silver watch, but the fit isn’t boring — because of his glasses. However, it’s only learned in the last few years that I’ve learned how glasses can be used as an accessory.
I’ve been wearing glasses since the fifth grade, when I discovered that constantly squinting to see the board from my desk was neither normal nor good for me. My first few pairs were typical for an adolescent girl of the late aughts and early 2010s: thick, narrow acetate frames with a splash of color or a muted pattern. They often involved purple, my favorite color.
In tenth grade, I got my first pair of round glasses. The frame front (the part directly around the lenses) was black, but the temples (or the “arms”) were a purplish stripe-y pattern. I really liked these glasses, so much so that I kept them for four and a half years. (Keep in mind, I definitely needed new ones, or at least new lenses; they were a cheap pair from Visionworks or LensCrafters or somewhere like that.)
After those, I got a pair of simple silver metal round frames. I really liked these glasses as well as my experience buying them from Warby Parker, but the lenses got scratched all to hell almost as soon as I got them — and I take pretty good care of my glasses. A few months into the global COVID-19 pandemic, I used Warby Parker’s Home Try-On service to replace those with a pair of classic clear acetate frames — probably the style of glasses that the brand is best known for. However, in November 2020, my sister Jacqui realized that she had some FSA funds to use by the end of the calendar year — so, we decided to pay a visit her manufacturer of choice, SEE Eyewear.
Jacqui had been telling our family about SEE for years and I finally got my first frames from them — a pair of prescription sunglasses — in the summer of 2019. For the average person, their glasses are on the pricier side; however, compared to all the other pairs I’ve had, they’re extremely durable and of great quality. (After more than four years of use, those sunglasses don’t have a scratch.) Most of all, SEE frames are all unique and stylish — their website says they are “the purveyor of the most eclectic eyewear in the country.” Their sales associates are known as “optical stylists” and they help you pick a pair that not only works with your face but that also might push your style in a new direction.
That day in November 2020, I was mostly there to help my sister shop for glasses. Since I’d just gotten a new pair — albeit out of necessity — we decided Jacqui should get whatever she wanted so that she could use up her flex spending, but if there were any funds left over, we’d put it towards some frames for me. However, I saw a pair on a shelf that I instantly fell in love with — at least, I fell in love with the concept. At first, I wasn’t sold on getting them for myself.
They were gold frames, dual-rimmed, with the rims connected by short lines of metal. The spaces between the rims had small pieces of teal and purple acetate, reminiscent of stained glass. The temples were not solid, but parallel lines of gold metal, while the part of the temples that curve down over the ears were a bluish-green tortoiseshell acetate. They looked like a work of art; I thought I wasn’t cool enough to rock such a whimsical, graceful pair of glasses. Between Jacqui and Sheila, our optical stylist, I was convinced — and I’ve been rocking them ever since.
I’m not the only one in my family to expand my eyewear comfort zone in recent years. My mom, Monica, once said that she’ll only ever wear black or brown glasses. Before 2018, her eyewear was always very understated and always one of those two colors. However, my mom’s glasses in the photo above are decidedly not inconspicuous. Those glasses, which she had for a few years, were bold, colorful, in-your-face, and fun — and she looked great in them.
Last week, I asked my mom why she felt that she had to have subtle eyewear. She explained that she thought this was what she had to wear to be “professional” or for people to “take her seriously,” but this belief eroded with age: “A lot of women [experiment with their fashion] as they get older and care less what people think.” She continued: “I don’t want to just fade into the background.” Wearing funky glasses is part of how she brings herself to the fore. Her current pair are angular cat-eye frames in a deep red, but she actually wanted them to be a brighter shade of red to stand out more.
I’m not here to advertise for SEE, but my and my family’s experiences in their stores have always been great. They helped me rethink eyewear — instead of just being A Thing I Have To Wear, they are my glasses — a unique and distinctive part of my signature style. I feel like these frames not only add to my external sartorial presentation, but also bring out my personality. As Jacqui said in a recent text, “I like that [our glasses help us] look like the charismatic scholars we are.”
My sister Jheanelle (also a very charismatic scholar) is the only member of our immediate family who doesn’t wear glasses — at least, not yet. She’s noticed that it seems to be time for her to get vision-correcting lenses, but she’s opting for glasses instead of contacts because she’s felt as if she’s been missing out on glasses as a sartorial object. (Remember when people would pop out the lenses of 3D glasses and wear them as fake specs in the early 2010s? Yep, she was definitely on that wave — but who can blame her when glasses are so cool!) Jheanelle has a great, singular sense of style — she’s been one of my biggest fashion inspirations since I was a teenager — and I’m excited to see what kind of frames she’ll get and how they’ll add to her unique style.
Over the last ten or fifteen years, we’ve moved away from viewing glasses as a symbol of uncool dorkiness to understanding that they can be part of your personal flair. In 2019, Al Roker went viral for his new periwinkle-blue frames, while Howie Mandel actually has an eyewear line with SEE. Eyewear is part of how you present yourself to the world — in addition, they help us who wear them literally move through the world. Glasses are, ultimately, a tool to address a medical issue, an accommodation. However, that doesn’t mean they can’t be fashionable. My eyewear is part of what makes me cool; I am not cool despite my vision impairment.
Glasses are not the only medical or accommodative device that can be used to accessorize. Lucy Dawson, a disabled model and content creator, often matches her cane to what she’s wearing. (She has a three-part reel series on her Instagram in which she shows off her over twenty walking sticks — you can watch the first one here!) Wheelchair users often decorate their chairs and include them in costumes.
In the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s cloth face masks often complemented their outfits, whether they matched colors or patterns, had rhinestones, or included messages for social justice. Even now, with surgical and KN95 masks being produced in different colors, many people — including myself — try to have their face masks complement their outfits. In fact, in asking my mom about her eyewear, she noted that “glasses are part of [her] ensemble, just like masks.”
The fact of the matter is that the accommodations that help us take part in the world — be it a protective mask, a mobility device, or glasses — are not detrimental to having style. They are a part of us, an extension of our bodies. In addition to being appreciated for how they let us participate more fully in our own lives, they can be utilized as stylish accessories.
Glasses are still one of the first things I notice about people’s outfits. When I met my friend TéLor back in November, one of our first conversations was about fashionable eyewear — I’d commented on the chunky, light green acetate frames she was wearing. Last month, I had the opportunity to meet the decorated journalist and author Masha Gessen, who has great taste in eyewear; a Google search pulls up photos of them in at least a dozen different frames. As they came up to the microphone to speak, I immediately noticed the black, rounded, gold-rimmed aviators they were wearing. After the talk, I got in the line of people waiting for their books to be signed because I absolutely had to compliment them. Gessen said: “Oh, thank you — they’re from SEE.”
Edited on November 14, 2023 to add: Quin Snyder’s red glasses have been confirmed to be Warby Parker’s Percey frames in the Raspberry color.
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