I know this is going to be hard to believe, but it takes a team of makeup artists and hairstylists for The Modern Gal to achieve the look you see in the top left corner of this blog. Every other day of the week, The MG is fairly normal looking.
The only especially distinguishing feature God gave me was my shortness, and really I’m not that short. I have brown hair. I have medium-toned skin. I’ll never win any beauty contests. No one is going to covet my hair or my nose or any other feature of mine. Well, maybe my butt … which once upon a time was dubbed a “ghetto booty.”
I think the fact that I find nothing interesting about my appearance is why I’ve become so attached to wearing glasses.
It wasn’t an immediate friendship. When one of my middle school teachers — I think it was seventh or eighth grade — caught me squinting from the back row to see the chalkboard, she called my parents who then shuffled me off to the optometrist. I hated everything about the process from having a light shined in my eyes down to the big round gold-rimmed glasses I ended up with as a result. I only broke those out when my life depended upon me seeing the chalkboard in class. The rest of the time they stayed in my backpack.
My parents let me try out contacts as a freshman. I was hooked as soon as I could successfully get them in my eyes: I could see and I didn’t have to wear my ugly glasses! A string of eye infections my sophomore year and my crazy optometrist telling me he wanted to try a procedure that would plug my tear ducts so that my eyes could handle the daily wear of contacts ended that little experiment. I went back to my wear-glasses-only-when-absolutely-necessary routine.
That was until I discovered the tortoise-shell frames eight years ago. Sure, they’re ubiquitous now, but they were something of a novelty then. And it was love at first sight. The shade of the frames complemented my hair and skin and my tendency to dress in earth tones perfectly. The rectangular shape of the frames were just distingushing enough. They said ‘kinda nerdy/kinda hip,’ which I like to at least pretend I was. They became a part of who I was, so much so that I know I have friends who wouldn’t recognize me without them.
Three pairs of tortoise-shell frames later, it seems like everyone and their mother has a pair, which means it’s time for me to find a new style. The problem is, choosing new frames stresses me out to no end. Selecting a new car? No sweat. A house? Piece of cake. Glasses? It’s like one step away from getting plastic surgery for me.
I stopped by LensCrafters after work today to get an idea of the current selections. I wasn’t overly impressed, but am mulling a few distinctly different frames before dragging the Modern Beau back to help me make a decision. Perhaps a two-toned pair with blue trim? A shade of my favorite color? Red? Something with a bit of embellishment?
Seriously, I need help.
I’m not a glasses wearer, so I’m not speaking from personal experience, but I think you should treat your choice in glasses like choosing a new car. Take your time, and definitely don’t feel rushed. I think you’re going to know “the one” when you see it. It may even take a few stores and a zillion hours, but people are going to see you in them all the time.
PS- your description of yourself is exactly me, too. Perhaps we’re long long long lost cousins 😉
I really like the blue trimmed ones.
I finally went and bought a new pair of glasses – my old ones gave me vertigo. I’m still all about contacts, but I love the way my new ones look so much that I am trying to wear them more – it’s totally that kinda nerdy/kinda hip thing. I feel like I look more like how I feel I should look when I wear them. I went with dark reddish brown that almost looks black. But I’m a novice. You should totally go for something that’s a little more of a statement.
Can’t remember how I found you – one of those clicks on comments and blogroll meanders, no doubt!
I am a long time glasses girl – the hardest bit is choosing frames because HELLO you need to be able to see clearly!
Currently I am having to wear my contacts because my new glasses lost a screw and it is SUCH a hassle.
I went very lightweight this time, with narrow gold almost frameless-frames in a squarer shape – mainly because the girl in the shop said they were good…
I really like the two toned with blue trim. I think I actually tried them on once and while super cool just looked bad with the shape of my face.
I say go for the embellishment. I did the red glasses in the early nineties. Loved them! This time around I went for chunky looking frames that are black but have 3 slanted strips of white on the sides (bows?) of the frames. Be daring!
I love my plain black ones because they go with everything. And the colorful ones are so much fun, but I’ve never been brave enough. I think I like the “favorite color” ones the best out of your selections.
Um… why can’t you just stick with what you’ve got?
Blimey – what does that comment say about me!?
I think that my glasses add to my identity as well. To the point that people in my department notice right away when I don’t have them on.
I do like the ones with blue trim, but the ones with the embellishment on them could be you as well. Those are new, haven’t seen anything like them yet.
I’d skip on the faux diamonds. I’m a fan of the tort ones.
You are totally geek chic! I like the blue two-toned ones.
I got a pair with purple frames last year and absolutely love them! (I’d looked at red, but I don’t feel I can really pull off the red.) I also got the more-standard wear-with-anything tortoise (and still have a pair with wire black frames, just in case) but the purple frames are very fun. (I get super paranoid about new frames too — and fear going too plain or too overboard. Luckily, the woman who was helping me at LensCrafters was actually very helpful. That helped a lot!)
I like the two-toned one myself. Very cute. I wear glasses at night but I don’t wear them all the time anymore. Honestly here in summer it just gets too hot. But I love the Tina Fey look and need to re-adopt it for a day a week myself 🙂