With designers such as Dolce and Gabbana, Gucci and Karen Millen all jumping on the eyewear bandwagon, an item that was once worn for necessity has now become a show of wealth and extravagance.
Image By: S.Diddy
With billions of people wearing glasses around the world the eyewear industry is worth big money.
A pair of bog standard glasses can cost in the region of £74 and the price rocketing for add ons such as tinted lenses; it isn’t hard to see why celebrities such as Gok Wan have decided to create their own makes of glasses.
This adding of a celebrity name or brand can see the price explode from a cringe worthy £74 to an eye watering, stomach churning, £174…minimum.
But why spend that sort of money on something that, let’s be honest, you aren’t really going to see?
Two eyes bad, four eyes good
Well that would be because other people will see you wearing them. The truth is today we live in a brand obsessed society, where the name is worth more than the product and where people are judged for what brands they wear. But when it comes to glasses could there be a deeper rooted meaning?
Since their creation, glasses have had a stigma attached to them and it was only in the early twentieth century, when Hollywood movie stars started to openly wear them, that the wearing of glasses has become more socially acceptable.
So, is wearing expensive designer glasses a way to sort of rebel against the stigma which has been attached to glasses since their creation?
If so, it’s working as today many people, believe it or not, are over the moon at hearing the news that they will need glasses.
Look to the stars
Before now, fashion as far as glasses were concerned, ended at sunglasses. Yet over recent decades glasses have been looking more and more to the catwalk for inspiration.
Currently the notion of ‘Geek chic’ is big in the world of glasses with celebrities such as Johnny Depp and Gok Wan both sporting the style. All you have to do is look around you and chances are you will see a hand full of people wearing the same style.
Don’t get me wrong this phenomenon isn’t unique to glasses; this has been going on in other areas of fashion for decades. Essentially, people follow trends in attempt to be accepted, the result being, that everyone ends up wearing the same thing.
It is understandable that those people who wear glasses want to look good in them in just the same way that people who don’t wear them want to look good in that new pair of jeans.
But £174 is a lot of money for companies to be charging for something that people need and can’t live without; unlike a pair of jeans, people with glasses can’t just take them off.
Whether you are a glasses wearer or not, what do you think?
Laura Bentley is a cool kid with her finger on what’s hot right now. She writes articles for Valley Optics, who are an online sunglasses shop. They sell an amazing range of designer eyewear, including Prada and Armani sunglasses.