Vision Thing!

March 12, 2012 6:59 PM

Looking for multicoloured funky eyeglass frames - hive mind, help me find them.

Ok, not sure how lucky I’ll be but here goes. I had a great pair of light metal (or plastic?) frames from Guess maybe 10 years ago - they were multicoloured, much like a Jackson Pollack painting, and lots of tiny little specks similar to what you see on this painter's site. I’ve checked the Guess web site but no luck, and a quick glance at eyeglasses.com (apparently the largest site for glasses) had no luck. It wasn’t so much the style of the lenses as the multicoloured aspect of it - they went with everything :(

Something like this is the multicoloured thing I like, but these were far more subtle as a frame - think metal, and the speckles were tiny small. Something like would be fun, but they’re reading glasses, and probably not that sturdy, I take it.

Has anyone seen any brands that do this? Any favourite online stores I should try, or sites like Polyvore? I plan to buy them if possible locally, but hoping the hive mind can help me find my new pair. Preference for under $400 and women’s if possible. Thanks!

Thanks!

posted by rmm to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (5 answers total)

Have you looked at See? Their website is kind of crap for deciding if they have a specific frame you want, but their selection tends toward the bold statements, and that's the kind of thing they might have. If there's an outlet near you, take a look.

Otherwise, just find a pair of black specs you like, loosen the screws to pop the lenses out, splatter-paint the frame with a toothbrush and colors of your choice, and put the lenses back in.
posted by aimedwander at 8:49 PM on March 12, 2012

I *love* the striped multi-colored frame on this page.
posted by Falwless at 6:32 AM on March 13, 2012

I have a lovely pair of multicolored sunnies by LA Eyeworks - persevere with the annoying site because they have some fantastic eyewear! They weren't cheap (I got a good deal from my regular optician) but they are very nicely made, optical quality acetate frames.
posted by Elizabeth the Thirteenth at 8:54 AM on March 13, 2012

Falwless, those are funky... pretty damn bold. Also I'm strangely attracted to the idea of doing them myself... oh awesome MeFis who give me the DIY ideas :)

Thanks for the links everyone. My only concern is that I've never paid less than about $100 bucks for frames, and most of these are less than $30 - my prescription is semi complicated (astigmatism mostly) but I don't need a really thick plastic frame for it. Maybe it's just habit - what I understand for some things like glasses, paying quality matters with the frames so you get good quality plastic rather than the cheap pair you get from Walgreen's. Can you buy frames and take them to an optometrist to do the actual lenses? Do they care?
posted by rmm at 12:28 PM on March 13, 2012

You can buy frames anywhere and have a local optical store do the lenses for ~$80 basic single vision lenses+coatings or send them to one of the online lensing places (goggles4u, 39dollarglasses, eyeglasslensdirect, etc) for about half that price. Generally also I have heard good things about Costco for lensing but haven't tried it myself. No one cares if you bring in your own frames, they're still making money off you through the lensing prices.
posted by tangaroo at 8:09 PM on March 13, 2012