#83 – Hip
Posted on April 11, 2012 at 12:00 am by Chris
Chapter: Comic
I don’t really know much about hipster history but I do remember coming to a gradual realization that I was seeing more and more people in their early 20’s wearing what I would have previously thought of as my grandparent’s clothing. The thing that really stuck out for me were the glasses. I’ve worn glasses since 2nd grade and each new pair would get thinner and more invisible. Suddenly people younger than me were wearing frames that were straight out of a 1950’s high school yearbook. I just got new glasses 6 months ago and I went with thinner again
Tags: clothing, hipster, judgement
I have done the same. My newest lenses are slightly thicker, but look thinner because the frame is so much thinner than the last pair, and only half rimmed. I looked at going rimless to get even thinner with both lens and rim, but they were just a bit more than I wanted to spend. Either way I spent less than I would have buying thick black plastic frames… crazy.
I’m glad I am not the only one who’s noticed that trend. You couldn’t get me to wear horn-rimmed glasses for nothing, but I always had to have frames of some kind because I’m severely nearsighted and it got worse every year growing up. The weight often killed me and when featherlights became available I jumped for joy. This last time was the first time I’d skipped full frames entirely, going with a very, very light pair of small-framed glasses with the lightest-weight material available for the lenses. What a difference! When you must wear them at all times, it makes a lot more sense. (Especially when I don’t even dare cross my apartment with confidence without them….)
I wonder now how I wore those coke-bottle things all these years as a kid. The weight! The pain!
I wear plastic frames because even when I get thin lenses, my lenses are pretty thick, and I don’t like the way they look in metal frames. That said, I tend to get the sleekest plastic frames I can get, and pick a color that I can complement with eye shadow. I don’t understand the desire to have huge crazy big glasses that take up half your face.
I recently saw a movie made back in 1989 (“Teen Witch”) where the main character (a teenage girl) had a blind date to the school dance. She had high expectations for her date, so she was shocked an disappointed to see him dressed up in thick-rimmed glasses, plaid shirt, and a pompadour.
She, on the other hand, wore a frilly, bright pink dress that kind of looked like a tutu, with bright pink face makeup and pink highlights in her hair. Today (23 years later), she would look out of place, while her blind date would look quite fashionable with his “geek-chic” style.
I was just thinking today on my way to work about how thick-rimmed glasses seem to have come back in style. Back in the 80’s they were considered old-fashioned, and no one under 50 years of age wore them.
I guess you know something’s truly back in style when you see pretty young women embracing it.
When did it become the fashion for guys to want to look like Velma Dinkley?
I always get plastic frames because I see my friends with wire frames fighting with them whenever they go crooked.