How To Wear Vintage Glasses

We’ve been fans of everything vintage, since I can remember picking out my first outfits. It’s a connection to the past, and a way to bring something unique to your style. We’ve always wanted to top our look off with some vintage frames, but were unsure if you could put prescription lenses in them, and if they’d be as good as modern frames. We did the research, went through the process, and now have a great pair of glasses to show for it. Today we’re sharing in case you’ve had vintage dreams too!

Here are some do’s and don’ts for adding prescription lenses to vintage frames:

• 1. First, the frames have to be ophthalmic, meaning they have to be designed for prescription use. Some frames aren’t built to handle prescription lenses.
• 2. Next make sure to choose a frame that is in good condition. Most frames that have been around for ten, twenty, fifty years, are going to have some wear and tear. Small cracks and weak points might be present that you can’t see with the naked eye, and won’t stand the stress of removing old lenses and replacing them with new lenses.
• 3. Also, the frames have to be the right shape. If you view the frames from above, there should be a “bow” across the width of the lens. If they are perfectly straight, they might not be able to be used.
• 4. Avoid exotic material, such as actual tortoise shell, and some plastics, which can dry with age. Also, skip any frames that  are crazy shapes, which can distort your vision.

5. If a frame is “drill mount” (i.e., there are holes drilled through the lenses which are used to hold the frame components on the lens), be aware that the prescription range may be limited. 

We both went with unique frames, in a pink hue. Brooke’s are probably from the late sixties, early seventies, and mine are probably from the late seventies, or early eighties. They just don’t make glasses like this anymore! Bring your chosen frames into your optometrist, and make sure you let them know that you want Transitions Lenses, if you want to have them protect your eyes from harmful blue light, and adapt to different lighting when going from outdoors to indoors, and vice versa. You get to pick from three different colors: gray, brown and graphite green (which is a gray green). Our last glasses, which you can see here (link to previous article) I have graphite green, and Brooke has brown. This time we chose gray.

We were so excited to try our vintage glasses. We knew we liked the style, but the most important thing was to make sure our eyes are protected, and our vision is at its best. We work on our computers a lot, so we can tell the difference right away between high quality and subpar lenses. We were curious if they’d be as good as our other glasses, and we’ve been so happy with the results. We love our new glasses, and we are thankful to Transitions Lenses for making our vintage glasses dreams come true, and for sponsoring this post. You can check out the Transitions website to learn more.