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Robert Alvarez knows a thing or two about fashionable vintage eye wear. In addition to being an optometrist, Alvarez is also an avid vintage collector, dealer, and co-owner of the Vintage Fashion Expo in Santa Monica. While looking stylish and true to era is a high priority for people who wear their vintage collectibles, protecting your eyes is Robert Alvarez's first priority. Alvarez states that people as young as 12 and as old as 70 come to him to buy and fill prescriptions for vintage glasses. Robert Alvarez shares his insider tips for shopping for vintage glasses and how to wear them. Shopping For Vintage Eyewear When shopping for vintage glasses, you want to look for either a metal or a plastic frame. Vintage plastic frames are made of Zyl. You want to make sure the frame is not cracked or broken. It should have a nice shiny, glossy material. You want to avoid any dullness, which you may find on the stem portion that goes behind the ears due to wear. Also check the temples of the glasses since they rest again the skin and may become dull. For highly decorated frames, make sure the rhinestones aren't missing. You can replace small, common rhinestones, but it's best to find a pair of glasses with a full set of rhinestones. You also went to check the bend behind the ear for cracks. After so many years of wear and being adjusted without heat, small, hairline cracks can form in the bend. They will continue to crack and eventually break if you need them adjusted. You want to avoid buying brittle frames. They can easily break. When it comes to metal frames, a little patina is fine, but you want to avoid tarnished frames that are not aesthetically pleasing. Glasses from the 1920s to the 1930s will have comfort cables, stems that go all the way around the ears. It's important to check the bend on these as well for cracks. You want to check for scratches on aluminum frames. Scratches render the glasses less desirable. Prescription Lenses For Vintage Glasses Pay special attention to the lens size as well. Try the glasses on to see if they fit your face because there isn't a common lens size. You will need to consider costs of customizing lenses though if the lenses are very small. An optometrist will need to cut the lenses by hand rather than an edging machine to fit the frames. In fact, modern cutting machines cannot cut lenses small enough for turn of the century style glasses so they must be cut by hand. This can be costly. Bifocals may also be a challenge if the lens size is too small. Hot Vintage Glasses The most popular era of vintage glasses for both men and women is the 1950s. Women tend to buy the cat-eye style glasses, and men like the square shaped or combination plastic and metal frames. Younger people are buying up large 70s styles. Eye Protection Vintage sunglasses do not provide the same protection that modern sunglasses do. Alvarez had some dead stock vintage sunglasses tested in his lab for UV protection levels and they didn't have any UV protection. The vintage sunglasses Alvarez sells are vintage frames with modern, UV protection coated lenses. Vintage glasses generally have glass lenses so it's easier to just replace the lenses with modern ones that are UV coated. Name Brands to Look For Not all glasses, vintage or modern, are made alike. Quality brand names are a good way to look for superior glasses. American Optical, Bausch & Lomb make quality eyeglass frames, while Ray-Ban, Persol and Tura are excellent sunglass brands. Shuron-Ronsir and Art-Craft are also good choices when shopping for quality frames. Old vs. New Vintage eyewear is always smaller. It seems along with growing waistlines, people's heads have grown as well. The lenses and frame width of vintage glasses are much smaller than modern eyewear. If you are lucky enough to find a wide width vintage frame, pick it up! They are rare. Reproduction frames are made much smaller to accommodate modern sizes. Modern reproduction glasses also offer a wider variety of colors, materials - titanium metal frames resist corrosion. How To Wear Vintage Glasses Everyday It's very important to choose a classic frame from the era that appeals to you most if you want to wear your vintage glasses everyday in order to avoid looking like you are in costume. If you like the 1950s, you can wear a subtle cat eye and avoid exaggerated angles and too many rhinestones. So what does an optometrist who loves vintage wear? "I wear both," states Alvarez. "I actually found a pair of wide 1930s frames to fit my big head and I wear a combination reproduction frame from Lafont Eyewear." Alvarez sells vintage glasses at vintage shows including the Santa Monica Vintage Expo where he has his own space, as well as his webpage, VintageCityEyewear.com and at VintageBlueMoon.com. |
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