An irresistible sourcebook featuring vintage glasses of all shapes, styles, and sizes—the very best of spectacle design The twentieth century marked a turning point in eyewear design, fueled by a rapidly changing social and cultural landscape, new manufacturing techniques, the development of innovative materials, and the entertainment industry. Spectacles, which had previously been classed as purely functional, were transformed into an ultra-chic fashion accessory. This engaging book is based on Simon Murray’s amazing collection, built up over decades of avid collecting. An introduction explores the history of glasses and reveals how premodern features and materials remain a rich source of inspiration in contemporary design, from Andre Courrèges’s “Lunettes Eskimo,” a twentieth-century take on Inuit goggles, to Gucci’s “Leather Aviators.” Examples of pre-twentieth-century glasses and contextual shots of film and style icons sporting spectacles illustrate not only the finest inventions and innovations of the past but also their evolution into the diverse, eclectic range of styles available today. Illustrated with specially commissioned photographs by Drew Gardner, this indispensable guide to eyewear will appeal to fashion designers, stylists, costume designers, and lovers of vintage.

Selecting a pair of glasses can be a tricky business. With so many styles and labels available, the choice is as much about making a fashion statement as gaining perfect vision. Cult Eyewear is the first book to give an account of the world’s top eyewear brands, from Ray-Ban to J.F. Rey, Persol to Polaroid, and from the 1780s to the present day. Neil Handley, an authority on the history of eyewear, selects more than 30 famous names that have enduring appeal and command a dedicated following, and discusses the history of each brand and its most iconic spectacles or sunglasses. The book also includes a concise illustrated introduction to the evolution of eyewear; innovative designs and historically important inventions; films and key personalities associated with particular designs or brands through the years; and other fascinating aspects of this global industry.

From 13th century Franciscan monks to Beyoncé in Black is King, Making a Spectacle charts the fascinating ascension of eyeglasses—from an unsightly but useful tool to fashion's must-have accessory. The power of glasses to convey a range of vivid messages about their wearers have made them into a billion-dollar business that appeals to cool kids and rock stars, and those who want to be like them, but the fashionable history of eyeglasses is fraught with anxiety and drama. At the beginning of the 20th century, the assessment in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar was that spectacles were "invariably disfiguring." Invisibility was the best option, and glasses were only to be put on once the lights at the opera went dark. While variations of that glasses-shaming sentiment appeared at regular intervals over the next 100 years or so, eyeglasses continued to evolve into an endless array of shapes, colors, purposes, and personalities. Once sunglasses took off in the 1930s, the magazine editorial made glasses a conspicuous part of the fashion narrative. Eyeglasses went to the ski slopes, the stables, the beach, the Havana hotel. Plastic innovations made a candy-colored rainbow of cat-eyes and "starlet" styles possible. Suddenly, everyone had the opportunity to look like Jackie O on vacation in Capri. Making a Spectacle traces contemporary high fashion frames back to their origins: the military aviator, the glam cat eye, the nerdly Oxford, the high-tech shield, the fanciful butterfly, the lowly rimless, and other styles all make an appearance. Featuring interviews with influential designers, makers, and purveyors of glasses including Adam Selman, Kerin Rose Gold, and l.a. Eyeworks, Making a Spectacle also takes a look at today's most cutting edge eyewear, showing the reader the latest and most innovative ways to see and be seen.

Cool Shades provides the first in-depth exploration of the enduring appeal of sunglasses in visual culture, both historically and today. Ubiquitous in fashion, advertising, film and graphic design, sunglasses are the ultimate signifier of 'cool' in mass culture; a powerful attribute pervading much fashion and pop cultural imagery which has received little scholarly attention until now. Accessible and highly engaging, this book offers an original history of how sunglasses became a fashion accessory in the early twentieth century, and addresses the complex variety of meanings they have the power to articulate, through associations with vision, light, glamour, darkness, fashion, speed and technology in the context of modernity. Cool Shades will be of great interest to students of fashion, design, visual and material culture, cultural studies and sociology, as well as general readers fascinated by this iconic fashion staple.

How design for disabled people and mainstream design could inspire, provoke, and radically change each other.

Long since regarded as an inessential object that simply adds to the beauty, convenience or effectiveness of an outfit, accessories are now considered key items in a fashion collection and as stand-alone pieces worthy of our undivided attention. Basics Fashion Design 09: Designing Accessories is filled with important information that any designer will need to know, examining four key items from concept to production: the bag, footwear, jewellery and millinery. The key accessories are dissected to clearly display the core components, giving a clear view of how each connects. The design process is explored by looking at creative product development, from gathering research to generating ideas into key products, construction techniques and the essential tools of the trade used in modern accessories design. 2D pattern and 3D modelling techniques are described in detail with explanations of traditional and rapid prototyping tools in use today. Bespoke and commercial production is examined and creative solutions to technical challenges are presented. Designing Accessories also explores specialist finishing techniques, such as hand-finishing and machine embellishment and contains descriptions of contemporary techniques that break new boundaries in accessories design. A detailed explanation of small accessories, essential to the accessories designer, will broaden the reader's knowledge and provide them with the dexterity of skills to enter the fashion industry. This title is filled with images of beautiful accessories to inspire young designers. It is essential reading for fashion students and all those interested in accessories design. The book also includes a whole chapter on small accessories (eyewear, scarves, ties, wristwatches, belts and gloves).

From monocles to pince-nez and goggle-eyes, a cultural and technological history of glasses in fact and fiction. This book examines those who wore glasses through history, art, and literature, from the green emerald through which Emperor Nero watched gladiator fights to Benjamin Franklin’s homemade bifocals, and from Marilyn Monroe’s cat-eye glasses to the famed four-eyes of Emma Bovary and Harry Potter. Spectacles are objects that seem commonplace, but In the Blink of an Eye shows that because they fundamentally changed people’s lives, glasses were the wellspring of a quiet social, cultural, and economic revolution. Indeed, one can argue that modernity itself began with the paradigm shift that transformed poor eyesight from a severely limiting disease—treated with pomades and tinctures—into a minor impairment that can be remedied with mechanisms constructed from lenses and wire.