Fake Coke Bottle Lense Eyewear Quick?

October 15, 2009 7:54 AM

How can I get authentic looking coke bottle eye glasses with no prescription (fake) lenses quick? Website? No Halloween, please. What might be a local source of cheap frames/glasses that could be repurposed?
posted by rainbaby to clothing, beauty, & fashion (11 answers total)

Thrift store? Friends? People who've switched to contacts might have an old pair of glasses hanging around.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:59 AM on October 15, 2009

They sell just this thing at costume stores- "nerd" glasses. I have a pair sitting on my desk, in fact.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:01 AM on October 15, 2009

I'm not totally sure I understand. Generally the coke bottle glasses look that way because they have thick lenses that make people's eyes look big [I always think of Bubbles from TPB] so glasses with no prescription wouldn't have the coke bottle effect. I've had a lot of luck getting eyeglasses either from the local thrift store or sometimes the library will have a bin of them that they lend out to people who need to borrow a pair of reading glasses [please ask first if you can take them, obv]. Drugstores sell reading glasses with mile prescrptions that might do okay. If you have a little bit of time you can get a pair of frames some cheap way and get an eyeglass shop to put clear glass in them.
posted by jessamyn at 8:01 AM on October 15, 2009 [1 favorite]

Perhaps an optometrist would have old samples to get rid of. The glasses on the racks have plain lenses in them.
posted by SLC Mom at 8:04 AM on October 15, 2009

I don't need costume store nerd glasses, thanks. Yes, I need to get a frame and have an eyeglass shop put clear but thick glass in them. So the big eye effect will be lost. I was wondering about the Lion's Club program. . .maybe I could find drugstore frames that could be re-done, but to hold thick plastic or glass, they'd need a big bottom rim, I don't know if that's contemporary. This is for a costume for a play, set in the 1980's.
posted by rainbaby at 8:07 AM on October 15, 2009

If you want places online to buy frames, check out the glassyeyes blog. It will take a few weeks, usually, to get the frames, though.

But nerd-style glasses are really popular right now. HotTopic even sells them.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:26 AM on October 15, 2009

there are usually bins of eyeglasses at thrift stores and antique stores. go there first. as for putting dud lenses in them, I'm not sure.
posted by Think_Long at 8:30 AM on October 15, 2009

So, to reiterate, I understand that you don't need costume store nerd glasses. Just to be clear, are you perhaps thinking of these and not these?

I recently saw a play where they used the latter for precisely this purpose. Heck, maybe it was the same one -- Beth Henley's "Miss Firecracker Contest."

Have you actually checked an eyeglass shop to see if it's something they can do? I think that any effect you would get from the thickness of the glass itself would matter little from the audience's point of view. You need the Coke bottle effect, and unless you have the joke glasses thing (seen above) where they have a certain part of the lens that is plain surrounded by the jokey outer parts, you'll be left with heavy glasses that don't reflect anything in the way that Coke bottle glasses will.

Anything other than that will be quite a bit more costly and take more time. Zenni Optical sells cheap full glasses, but I don't know if their turnaround time will fit your needs. In either case (Zenni or, say, LensCrafters), you'd still have to have something resembling a "prescription" so their machines could grind as needed, and without actual measurements it might be difficult.
posted by Madamina at 8:36 AM on October 15, 2009

Dunno about what local means to you, but Archie McPhee has just what you're looking for.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:42 AM on October 15, 2009

Some of the online optical shops offer the option of non-Rx lenses in any of their frames. In fact, this might cut the turnaround time since they don't need to make lenses specific to your Rx. You will probably pay more for expedited shipping, but the glasses will be cheap. It's probably not doable in less than a week.
posted by slow graffiti at 9:20 AM on October 15, 2009

The bins at the libraries seem to be the way to go, then replace the lenses. I liberated a pair at lunch that might work (with librarian blessing). If not, we fan out and get that done, then into the local spec shop to replace. Thanks for your help and keep your fingers crossed.
posted by rainbaby at 10:20 AM on October 15, 2009