Show us your new (old school) sun specs!

[Matt Deckard]

A thread for repro or classic looking specs that are new.

As an optician at Hotel De VIlle Eyewear, I got to study faces in a whole new way. I’d learned the intrinsic differences that made a cat eye frame work on one woman and not another. The bold attitude it took to carry off a thick frame that could look obnoxious on one man, ridiculous on another, and still well suited to another. In that time I studied myself of course, and on an excursion of study to Oliver Peoples on Sunset I discovered something that gave my heart glee… a pair of 1930s styled P3 shaped amber sunglasses with minty green lenses that suited me to a tee. I had to have them.
I receive at least a few questions a week about where I got them, so I’ll break it all down here and now. The glasses are a reissue of the O’Malley, a popular style that Oliver Peoples made back in the late 1980s when the company was new and on the covers of the most well known fashion magazines around the world. I tend to think the reissue of these glasses, and the others in the vintage lineup have given Oliver Peoples a new energy, a good fresh energy as they return to their roots. Anywho, I spent a nice amount of money on them and used my skills to make them fit me perfectly so that I don’t notice when they are on… comfy!
With the specs came a classic clam shaped case with a beautiful crushed velvet liner… the case is something that slides neatly into a jacket pocket.
It’s not easy to find a good pair of amber colored frames from the 1930s, and quite frankly I’m not really needing to go on that hunt with the discovery of these. The acetate used to make them isn’t brittle, and the lenses have a nice anti reflective coating on the inside for me but not on the outside for you. In these ways, the specs are better than vintage.
I present to you the O’Malley by Oliver Peoples. Just one of many in their vintage reproduction line. Part of the 1980s does 1930s eyewear revival.

 

[Benny Holiday]

I've admired the look of those shades many times Matt. I had a pair of magnetic sun lenses that clipped on over my regular eye glasses and when they got old, I decided I wanted to try and find something vintage-looking. My dream glasses were the ones worn by Giovanni Ribisi as Alvan Karpis in Public Enemies, and I thought I'd never find ones like that! Lo and behold, I was messing around on the internet one day not long thereafter, and I stumbled across a site called Deadd Mens Spex, and what did they have but a reissue of the original Polaroids from 1937 - exactly the same as the ones in Public Enemies! I bought them straight away and had pescription lenses put in.

It's raining cats and dogs here tonight, if it clears up tomorrow I'll have the Mrs take a snapshot of my ugly mug with them on and post a comparartive pic from the movie. wwww.deadmensspex.com still have the shades available in dark tortoise shell or the light tan-cream bakelite-style plastic, look under sunglasses and Polaroid Heritage.

 

[Metatron]

Those glasses are something else. I think your tie is brilliant too.
The comment you made on face shapes, is it the 'square glasses suit a long face' and such? I consider that I have an oval face which supposedly means anything can suit me, yet I never thought I looked good with round glasses.

 

[Pera.T]

Benny, I'm also a big fan of the Polaroids in Public Enemies! Looking forward to seeing your photos, might have to get me a pair

The shades below are mine. I'd been hunting for a pair of 30s style sunglasses for a long time (at antique shops), but found these at my local opticians. Vintage style frames seemed to be in fashion at the time.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Oliver Peoples O'Malley

I picked up a pair of John Lennon glasses last year the model I am wearing is Norwegian Wood.

They make a lot of different models of vintage glasses.
John_Lennon-Frames
At good prices my frame is really well made. I added clip on sunglasses.

 

[univibe88]

Allyn Scura makes some nice current production frames with a vintage style.

http://allynscura.com/products/ase-legend-031-01-tempered-glass-sun-lenses

They are made in Japan and are well made. I have a pair that I originally had done up in sunglasses. Surprisingly none of the optometrists in my area had any idea how to get a hold of true green lenses. I ended up with G-15. I ended up having them switched to eye glasses anyway.

 

[sal]

This is my recent acquisition


http://www.ogieyewear.com/seraphin/optical/fremont

 

[Benny Holiday]

Pera you really got that look down pat! Those shades are like they're right out of the movie man!

Here are the 1937 Polaroid Heritage pair:

As seen in Public Enemies:

And as modelled by yours truly:

 

[Pera.T]

Thanks Benny! I was going for the Dillinger look, inspired by the same scene in the movie.

Looking good in those Polaroids! :eusa_clap
It's real nice to have shades that look right. Before I bought mine I'd feel stupid wearing modern sunglasses with vintage, so I'd go around squinting and have a headache at the end of the day, haha!

 

[univibe88]

This is my recent acquisition


http://www.ogieyewear.com/seraphin/optical/fremont

Those are a nice modern twist on a classic combo frame. Did you get them as eyeglasses or sunglasses?

 

[Ying Ko]

I posted something in the "Vintage Sunglasses" thread, but I think I should have posted it here instead. Apologies for re-posting!

These are pics of some sunglasses I bought at See Eyewear. I really like the orange-y amber color of the thick plastic.

The product description listed these as "Fifties-styled" frames, but they look more like postwar Forties frames to me. Maybe early Fifties? Or maybe it was a copy of a pair of sunglasses that were manufactured in the Fifties, but a model that had been in continuous production before then.

 

[Ying Ko]

Here is another pair of sunglasses from See Eyewear. If I remember correctly, the guy at the store said they were copied from a pair of 1950's glasses purchased in Spain. But I think the design is actually French in origin.

 

[Ying Ko]

Here are some Forties reproductions (Forties inspired?) from Ralph Lauren. These are Ralph Lauren Purple Label model PL 9756. They were in production for roughly five years or so. They're a little narrow for my face, but I think that adds to the overall vintage-ness.

I bought these as part of a larger plan to buy reproduction eyewear to go with my Fossil watch collection. I have a collection of Fossil watches that go from reproduction Thirties to reproduction Seventies. I created aesthetic "folders" for my watch collection: the Great Depression, Postwar Prosperity, Populuxe, and Mod. Then I started collecting reproduction eyewear to match. For each "folder", I purchased multiples of the same frame in a few different colors, usually black and tortoise, and then a pair of sunglasses. If the budget allowed, I'd also pick up a few oddball pieces that were specific to the era.

 

[Ying Ko]

These sunglasses are like a Nineties version of the Thirties. These are a Fossil model called the "One Fifty". I look at them now and say to myself, "Wow, these really are Nineties. I can't believe I actually wore these." But I like some of the details, like the coin-edge detail along the rims, and the teardrop-shaped Fossil logo on the temples. The logo on the temples was loosely based on an old Airstream logo.

 

[Ying Ko]

Here is a pair of Anglo American 221 EVO sunglasses. I like the green plastic; it seems like something you'd find in a dime store in the mid Thirties.

The hinge is heat-sunk rather than staked, which for the amount of money that I paid for the frames makes them overpriced. But a heat-sunk hinge was consistent with the dime store aesthetic I was going for, so I went ahead and bough them anyway. Besides, there were other details that made up for that, like ridges at the ends of the temples for extra grip.

 

[Ying Ko]

"Tampico" frames from Eyeglassboy. These frames were worn by Mexican bandleader Juan Garcia Esquivel, rock legend Buddy Holly, and the late, great Roy Orbison.

These frames are one thick chunk of plastic.

 

[Ying Ko]

Here are some Mod-inspired frames from Eyeglassboy. I don't know if these are fedora-worthy...? At what point did men stop wearing fedoras on a regular basis? Sometime in the Sixties, right? Right after Kennedy stopped wearing fedoras. Yeah, it was Kennedy, and then the hippies and their Peacock revolution. Although, that Jimi Hendrix wore fedoras. He seemed like such a nice man.

The first pair is the "Socrates" model in green tortoise; the second pair is the "Vitelloni, and the third pair is called the "Atomic Boy".

 

[Fading Fast]

From Oliver Peoples' "Vintage Collection" about six or so years ago:

 

[earl]

I'm quite fond of many vintage style round frames. However, that style does not look good on my face. Tend to do better with rectangular frames. In fact, seems to me that round frames are tough to pull off for most facial types.

 

[Benny Holiday]

That's quite a collection of cool shades Ying Ko.