Horn-rimmed Glasses - History

History

Horn rim glasses were initially popularized by comedian Harold Lloyd after he wore them in his 1917 comedy short Over the Fence. Lloyd had risen to fame playing an eccentric named Lonesome Luke, characterized by an ostentatious appearance. In an effort to break away from the character and revitalize his career, Lloyd crafted a new character who would be Luke's opposite and made distinct by a nondescript appearance. Lloyd outfitted himself in clothing popular amongst Americans in the 1910s, completing the ensemble with a pair of round, horn-rimmed glasses that would solidify the character's status as "ordinary." Glasses wearing had long been stigmatized, with wearers stereotyped as physically weak intellectuals, members of the clergy, or simply elderly; President Theodore Roosevelt's wearing of rimless eyeglasses had only recently begun to eliminate the stigma, albeit with glasses designed to minimize their appearance.

Lloyd named the character "The Glasses Character" or "The Glass Character" after the frames; the lenses themselves had in fact been removed, both because Lloyd did not require glasses to see, and because studio lights reflecting off of the lenses obscured Lloyd's eyes on film. The character proved to be a tremendous success with audiences and resulted in an unexpected rise in popularity of horn-rimmed glasses: Sales around the world rose as the popular Lloyd's appearance wearing glasses helped to dispel negative stereotypes of glasses wearers; when Lloyd ultimately broke the frames and attempted to order a new pair from the manufacturer, his check was returned along with an order of twenty frames and a note from the company thanking him for his endorsement. Explaining his reasons for the glasses, as well as their sartorial advantages, Lloyd said: "They make low-comedy clothes unnecessary, permit enough romantic appeal to catch the feminine eye, usually diverted from comedies, and they hold me down to no particular type or range of story."

Horn-rimmed glasses continued to be popular into the 1920s but steadily lost their appeal as their popularity was supplanted by sturdier metal styles: Exposure to heat and sunlight rendered the plastic brittle and prone to breakage, often to the point that they would break should an optician attempt to install new lenses.

A variant of horn-rimmed glasses, Browline glasses, became one of the defining eyeglass styles of the 1940s and 1950s. Invented in 1947, the style combined the aesthetics of horn-rimmed glasses with the stability of metal frames by fitting prominent plastic "brows" over the tops of metal frames, creating a distinctive look that was also sturdier than solid plastic frames. Browlines quickly became popular in post-World War II America, and composed half of all eyeglass sales throughout the 1950s.

Plastic eyeglasses mounted in popularity throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, ultimately supplanting metal as the most popular material for eyeglass frames. The trend died out in the 1970s, as oversized metal glasses in the style of the Ray-Ban Aviator became popular. Semi-round horn-rimmed glasses came back into fashion in the 1980s, with tortoiseshell being fashionable amongst entrepreneurs and "yuppies". Colored variants also became popular amongst New Wave musicians.

Horn-rimmed glasses fell back out of fashion in the 1990s but returned to popularity with the rise of the emo and hipster subcultures in the early 2000s. Many glasses manufactured during this period tended to imitate popular metal eyeglass styles, with significantly thinner frames and vertically smaller lenses. The popularization of 1960s styles by the television show Mad Men led to horn-rimmed frames produced in the 2010s being more traditional, with large lenses and thick, heavy frames.

In mainstream culture, the glasses are often associated with being "nerdy". Thus, they became popular in emo, punk, indie, hipster, goth, and generally counter-culture fashion. Some trend followers wear the glasses without prescriptive lenses, purely as a fashion statement. Hot Topic, a clothing chain that markets to a counter-culture/alternative consumer base, sells the frames without prescriptive lenses. The design has long been popular for sunglasses frames, as well, perhaps most notably worn by The Blues Brothers; this style is known as Ray Ban Wayfarer. The style gained some fame in the 21st century as the identifying feature of one of the main characters in the critically acclaimed american science fiction television show Heroes (the character was identified as Noah Bennet in the first season finale but uptil that point was known as 'Horn Rimmed Glasses'or 'HRG').