I got my first pair of standard-issue Navy glasses in January 2012. Since I was out in the fleet and not in boot camp, I was spared the indignity of "birth control goggles," those massive brown plastic frames that haven't changed a bit since Vietnam-era recruits were forced into them. Plain black frames, within uniform regs, basically indestructible, and wholly unremarkable.
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| Birth Control Goggles, or BCG's |
When I became a civilian and regained the ability to customize my appearance, getting new glasses became a matter of urgency. My younger sister is incredibly cool and she wears Warby Parker glasses, so that's where I started looking.
Warby Parker is this hip little company that sells durable, stylish, and most importantly - INEXPENSIVE - glasses. And as a really fantastic perk, for every pair of glasses they sell, they donate an equal amount to VisionSpring, a non-profit that provides glasses to low-income people in need across the world.
That's wonderful. But what sold me on the brand was the fact that I could get a pair of single-vision frames for less than $100.
Warby Parker allows you to choose up to five frames for a free at-home try-on, so you can see how the different pairs will actually look on your face. I've ordered three of these at-home boxes so far, and have been shocked - some pairs I thought would be perfect on me made me look like Woody Allen, and some that I stuck in the box just to fill it up ended up being my jam.
My gateway into the Warby Parker obsession were the Daisy frames in Aurelia Tortoise. I wanted a colorful pair of glasses (because, let's get real, my sister had a pair of blue glasses, and I thought they looked SO COOL). I love the plastic frames because they don't pinch my nose. The shape suits my round face, and I can wear them with jeans or my daily uniform of yoga pants and a t-shirt.
Since I do occasionally leave the house, I wanted a pair of frames that made me appear as if I were a normal human being with style. The Daisy's fit the bill, sure, but I wanted something more distinctive. Another at-home box gave me a surprise when I discovered that the Ames frames made me look like the coolest Mission Controller in history. Being wire-framed, these ones were a little more expensive, but I needed them, so they were ordered.
You see in the middle, the bridge is made of the plastic, and isn't wire with those little feet? Yes, that is a wonderful design feature. All you four-eyes out there know that those little feet some glasses have will pinch and give you a rotten headache after a few hours of wear. The design of the Ames frames is conducive to hours of wear with no awareness of their presence on your face except for the underlying feeling that you're cooler than you were before you had them on.
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| Me in my Ames, hangin' in Barcelona with Mom |
Once I had the Ames frames and realized that I looked like the coolest nerd since Dave Scott circa 1971 (oh, you didn't think you were going to learn today?), I found out that Warby Parker sells the frames in sunglasses, too. I had a trip planned to Barcelona, and I certainly didn't want to view the city with blurry eyes, so I ordered the sunglasses, too.
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| Dave Scott was Bae |
All my frames have stood the test of time. I wore the Daisy frames while I tiled my entire first floor, so they withstood a week of wet saw debris flying in their general direction. They have been knocked off my face by enthusiastic dogs, have been smudged by affectionate husband, have traveled across the ocean, and have been on my face as I completed the work that would land me on the Dean's List (I'm not saying correlation implies causation in this case, but hey).
And because of my purchases, three strangers got the glasses they needed.
Everyone wins!
-Ang
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