Come to the nerd side…we have really nifty glasses.
And we mean this in the best way possible. Recently, uncool has become the new cool, and the fashion gods have spoken: nerd glasses are actually in.
Remember that old saying, that nerds are the people you make fun of in high school but then work for in the real world? It seems as though the saying has proved true in the end, and nerd culture has even entered — in fact, infiltrated — the realms of fashion. Nerdy glasses are appearing on the runway and in high fashion print ads and editorials. High end brand and designer names, some of which are centered around a couture house, such as Dolce and Gabana, Paul Frank, Ralph Lauren, and even Chanel, have begun to put out an “angry fruit salad” of the nerd world’s most iconic symbol: large, thick framed and focal point level noticeability glasses. And these high fashion nerd or geek glasses, which we never thought we would live to see, come with a price tag that is often steeper than the carriers’ other frames.
Even less expensive fashion frame manufacturers have gotten in on geeky, and by now, it is nearly impossible to walk around on or near a college campus without encountering a nerdily bespectacled person, no matter how nerdy the rest of them appears.
But why have nerd glasses become so popular this season?
Let’s face it. Whether you are a high school sophomore or a high up suit, you are or can remember being around — or being — the nerdy kid. But no matter how much school nerds are tormented with ridicule and outsider status, everyone from the cheerleading captain to the lead guitarist in the punk band is secretly fascinated with the nerd. And whether it be over their niceness and sense of acceptance and accessibility, or their lightyears above average intelligence and ominous potential to one day take over the world, pretty much everyone secretly wants to get in on the nerdiness.
And in fact, the second kids get out of high school, they indulge the nerdy bone in almost every one of their bodies: geeky glasses are especially prevalent on college campuses, particularly at schools where creativity and free thought are valued heavily. And while retro will never be out, there will always be people to branch into every angle and subculture of retro, vintage, and in the case of nerd, ongoing style.
One of the immediate reasons that nerd glasses have caught on is that they do nothing to hide the fact that the wearer is, in fact, wearing glasses: if you need glasses, isn’t it better to just run with it than to waste time and money trying to downplay them with uncomfortable and disposable contact lenses or choosing half visible frames?
Another reason is not only that nerd culture has never before been so prevalent in the mainstream, but never has it been this accepted. And nerds are some of the most accepting people around. Our generation seems to view going even just slightly nerdy as a healthy indication of open mindedness, creativity, imagination, and some of the more positive facets of the nerd stereotype. Many of us play video games, have learned the ins and outs of our own electronics and can often fix them ourselves, and are becoming less concerned with what society seems to expect of us. So what better way is there to declare your independence from all that than with uber nerdy glasses?