Help Me Find These Sunglasses!

February 7, 2007 8:55 PM

Looking for help categorizing/finding a particular style of sunglasses, harder than it sounds!

Okay, I've been looking for a particular type of sunglasses for quite awhile now. I've found precious few examples, mostly through imitations from movies, etc. The sunglasses I want are similar to what Seraph wore in the Matrix (http://www.maximumeyewear.com/productfolder/celebrity-sunglasses/movie-sunglasses/matrix-sunglasses/matrix-glasses.jpg) but perhaps slightly smaller around the eyes. I've tried buying the cheap replicas of these, only to find them to actually be generic round eyeglasses quite unlike the photo. Apparently no "real" consumer versions were made, unlike the others released by Blinde.

I'm looking for what I can best describe as "assassin" glasses, small round black lenses that are close to each other between the eyes (not Morpheus glasses, though. These are different.) They're sometimes referred to as "John Lennon" sunglasses but obviously I want the lenses to be smaller. I've seen the exact style in several movies, and animes, and even in the windows of a few sunglasses shops (back in high school; of course they don't have them anymore.) This leads me to believe that this actually was fashionable somewhere at some time, and that this is an actual style. Usually killers, villians, or older wise characters wear them in movies.

I've spent at least 15 hours trying to chase down exactly what to call this style, and googling generic terms like "round", "Lennon", etc. but I haven't made much progress. Can anyone help me out? And can anyone tell me where to find them?

posted by Phyltre to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (6 answers total)

As far as I know, they're called Granny Glasses.
posted by SassHat at 9:30 PM on February 7, 2007

Although, looking at the pic again, if you want them smaller than those, maybe not?
posted by SassHat at 9:42 PM on February 7, 2007

I used to work for an optometrist and we had many, many catalogs of frames to look through (from every manufacturer imaginable)... I would recommend going to your local optometrist's office and describing what you're looking for... They would be more than happy to look through their catalogs with you.
posted by amyms at 10:01 PM on February 7, 2007

Here is a bigger picture. You can see that the lenses are not round like the Windsor style jamaro linked to are round. Much closer are the 19th century glasses from the same site, although they also are not an exact match.
All of the matrix/seraph replica glasses I found are way off. I suspect the glasses in the movie are custom made props.
posted by Osmanthus at 10:13 PM on February 7, 2007

Ah yes, the glasses for the matrix were custom designed by costume designer Kym Barret and Richard Walker of Blinde design. Some of the Blinde glasses are on sale here however the Seraph style isn't oen of them.
posted by Osmanthus at 10:51 PM on February 7, 2007

Seraph's shades look like they might be these with tinted glass. I seem to remeber reading that a lot of the shades used in The Matrix were anique frames with modern lenses, so Osmanthus' suggestion of looking at vintage spectacles would be a good place to start.
posted by lekvar at 2:33 PM on February 8, 2007