Four-Eyed Girl

New Specs by 3.1 Phillip Lim

I was one of those weird kids who never had a problem with my near-sightedness. Maybe it’s because I’ve needed prescription lenses since the first grade, or perhaps I was too engrossed in books and ballet classes to register their “un-cool” factor. Whatever. No one called me four eyes, and even if they did, I probably wouldn’t have cared.

I loved my glasses.

Here’s the thing: some wear them for to be ironically cool (apparently it’s the hipster’s reverse psychology mentality), and I try not to judge. Some, like me, actually need them. I wore my rim-less glasses with pride through thick and thin, no matter how “un-cool” they were (for the record, they were, two years later. A trend-setter and go-getter since 1992.) I graduated to those plastic, rectangular frames (you now see everywhere) once I decided I wanted to be a lawyer or writer.

Eventually I jumped on the contact lenses bandwagon, more so for convenience than vanity (listen: have you ever tried doing calypsos and fouettés with specs on?), but since college has kindly introduced me to the all-nighter phenomenon, I’ve been relying on my glasses more and more. Cocktail rings were my accessories of choice in high school; glasses would be my signature now, and I needed to up the ante on their statement factor.

It’s amazing how this one accessory—let’s call it that because this is a fashion-ish blog, after all—can completely change your face. Find the right pair and it’ll frame your face: lift the cheekbones, highlight the eyes, the whole works. Wear it enough and you become a completely different person, if not entirely unrecognizable person without them. Glasses go beyond being a signature and become a part of your persona. Case in point: Steve Jobs, Woody Allen, Yves Saint Laurent, Albert Elbaz.

Which brings to mind this: why are men are more apt to adopt specs—intentional or not—than women are? I happen love a woman in glasses; I keep picturing Gisele in The Devil Wears Prada in her black sheath dress and hair swept up in a chignon. I’m no Gisele, but I firmly believe that with a red lip, a girl believes she can be anything:

What do you think?

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WEARING: 3.1 Phillip Lim glasses

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