Guys Don't Make Passes at Gays Who Wear Glasses

While I know others who despise wearing eyeglasses despite necessity, I secretly like wearing them. I get to hide behind them on occasion - and sometimes, they work so well I often get asked if I wear glasses when let them rest as I don contacts.

I've been wearing glasses since I was 14. My most memorable pair - my second, were thin wire frames that were roadkill once it fell from my lap as I let them defog from the cold air-conditioning of my car when I jumped out of the driver's seat to steal a poster of the first X-Files film for my cousin, if you're good - you'll know that was in 1997. The irony of charity.

Since then I've moved on to sturdier plastic - with anti-reflective, double-glazed lenses (so technical no?), fully flexing the muscles of experimental dabbling of geek chic in the early 00's.

The pair above is #4, from 2002. Nice dark brown frames boxy enough to just sit below my eyes. I've been wearing them on and off since 2002 with a short break as I experimented with other styles and contacts. I love them.

This one is #6, I got in 2006 - attempting to appear avant-garde and contradicting myself from the heavy dark frames I had been wearing, I picked up these clear glasses from D&G.


And taking a cue from D&G (and Viktor & Rolf and D-Squared) from last month's 2009 S/S shows where they sent just about every model in eye glasses (don't you love my segues?) I decided to do some upgrading on the spec-front. Say hello to #7.


First, since I couldn't find Persols to turn in to eyeglasses - and inspired by Terry Richardson's bespectacled portraits, I had Jose - the optometrist at Karishma at the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney convert tortoise shell Ray-Ban Wayfarers into specs. This feels out-there poseur style, the round frames off set my fat cheeks.

And since it was early in the morning before work - I really only intended to stop in to "just see" what stock was available - the big looming "SALE" signs calling my attention - I browsed some more and found a second pair that looks the same-same but different. Bigger glasses, boxier, and oh John Varvatos - I could wear it with the Jack Purcells he designed. And given that Jose was an affable salesman - and that I still had a why-the-hell-not attitude left over from my va-cay I returned home from the day previous. I got these too.


As a friend said, "you look like a hot Asian nerd" - I guess if anything I don't mind being a walking, talking oxymoron.