Claudine 029

In the Netherlands, 1989 was the year in which eyewear

fashion made an abrupt change. The huge frames died out

in the opticians shops and tiny, rather dull retro frames were

the order of the day for almost two decades. Fortunately,

in Germany the 1990's brought some refreshing alternatives.

Glasses with a marbly structure appeared and some frames

were both striking and funny. Here Claudine shows a good

example of the style. The first owner of these glasses had an

"impossible" prescription - a straightforward minus 5.75 for

the right eye (two diopters above Claudine's own Rx) but

an extremely strong cylinder (five diopters) on top of 8.25

spherical value. I wonder how she coped with that problem.

Anyway, Claudine decided to give these "crazy" glasses a try

and yours truly did his best to capture them under the best

vantage points. It's immediately apparent from the portraits

that Claudine has monovision here - in all probability just like

the first owner of the glasses. The good thing about this series

is that the frame distracts the viewer's attention from the extreme

Rx difference between the lenses. In a way, we see an extension

of the effect of the huge frames of the 1970's and 1980's - only

different!