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Trends come and go in the fashion world, refelcting what’s cool and current. In the United States, mainstream society tends to follow examples set by famous faces in Hollywood and the music world.
Recently, a new fashion craze has been seeping in through the hipster underbelly of America that stems back to the ‘40s –classic big-rimmed glasses.
Celebs like Robert Downey Jr. and Cate Blanchett have been seen wearing these Old School specs, which only certify that it’s an official trend. However so, there are many people in the nerd community that have been wearing them for quite some time now. They are not trying to follow any kind of recent fashion trend.
The concept of Geek Aesthetic has always been something normal for them, and big-rimmed glasses are a fabric of that.
Address Marroquin, a 23-year-old looking to go to school in the near future, has been a fan of the “big rims” for most of his adult life.
“I’ve always admired them in cinema, so when I started wearing glasses, I went with horn rims rather than something more contemporary,” he said. “I mean, I grew up watching a lot of classic films, but I’d be lying if Elvis Costello, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison and such didn’t have an influence on me.”
Marroquin is one among many locals who sport what Hollywood now considers the new craze, but to his credit, he wears them because he truly likes them.
UTPA freshman art major Bianca Cantu is another individual who wears them because she has always enjoyed that particular style; plus, she gets racy comments from people about her choice of eyewear.
“People always tell me that I look nice and that they like my glasses,” she reported. “I get the ‘sexy teacher’ thing a lot, but I pretty much wear them because I like them, and I look good in them. I think you should wear something because you really like it, not to be cool or try to fit in with the scene.”
The sex appeal of big dorky reading glasses is now taking over the runway, whether people have 20/20 vision or not. Any fashion magazine one opens illustrates that according to the “in crowd,” it’s time to get “geeky.”
However, others that have adopted the look aren’t wearing them for the Geek Factor. They just have extremely poor vision and want to look nice in something different.
Adriel “Otter” Ortiz, a senior broadcast major, is a big-rim newbie who started wearing them mainly due to his unsatisfactory pair of previous glasses.
“I got bad vision, like very bad vision, so my lenses are very thick,” he admitted. “My last pair was a smaller frame and my lens was popping out. This year I wanted to have a good pair of glasses that didn’t show my telescope lenses and was in style.”
This change in eyewear has only produced positive results for Ortiz.
“It’s funny because now people say I look like Superman with the new glasses,” he remarked. “I’ve also been noticing more looks from the ladies, so that works for me.”
Whether you like them or not, big rimmed glasses are here to stay. For now, at least. They have become a part of pop culture, but it’s safe to assume for reasons of authenticity that one should wear them because they want to: not because it’s the latest trend.
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