When Dutch model Iekeliene Stange ambles into a casting, her oversize, lensless eye glasses often get more attention than her leggy stance, gap-toothed grin or vintage nightgown dresses. Originally bought for her boyfriend’s “Napoleon Dynamite” costume for a dress-up party last summer, the round red frames have become her signature. “I got them in a vintage store, I think in London,” says Stange, 21.
The lensless look is blossoming among a set that’s on the young side for bifocals. Others, though, are choosing to wear glasses with clear, non-prescription lenses. Molly Sims donned such a pair by Ray Ban at a recent Irving Plaza event, and Kirsten Dunst posed for photos in funky tortoiseshell frames while promoting “Marie Antoinette.”
Fabulous Fanny’s, an eyewear emporium in New York’s East Village, sells vintage frames from a plethora of designers, including Cazal, Christian Dior, Alain Mikli and Paloma Picasso, for anywhere from $40 to $300. Owner Ken Finneran estimated that about 10 percent of his customers buy his glasses for fashion and plan to wear them either with clear lenses or without lenses, à la Stange. “They wear them just for attitude,” says Finneran, of his 20/20 shoppers. In addition to its sizable vintage stock, the store also carries its own line of new vintage-inspired frames, called Spectaculars, retailing from $125 to $150. (Chloë Sevigny recently picked up a pair.)
Eyewear designer Christian Roth, who first noticed people wearing glasses for superfluous reasons in Tokyo during the late Eighties, believes many younger customers wear vanity glasses “to look more mature or trustworthy, or just to disguise themselves.”
And then there are the people who simply want to look more like their favorite faux-myopic celebrity. According to Pierre Fay, senior vice president of the Luxottica Group, which licenses glasses for Prada, Miu Miu, Chanel and Ray Ban, “We are experiencing a tremendous increase in celebrity requests for optical styles, which has in turn positively impacted consumer demand.” Lindsay Lohan, the future face of Miu Miu, for example, has taken to wearing a nonprescription version of the house’s glasses.
Stange, who counts Snow White and Minnie Mouse among her pantheon of style icons, pleads ignorance: “I don’t really think, ‘Oh, this is going to be fashion.’ I just do whatever I feel like. It’s kind of funny how other people start doing the same.”