I'm looking for a specific style of eyeglass frames.

June 19, 2008 4:27 PM

Classic 50's scientist: I'm trying to find a pair of eyeglass frames just like #6 on this page. I don't care if they're vintage or new, but they have to be able to handle contemporary prescription lenses.
posted by Robson to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (14 answers total)

Can't you just order them from the site you linked to? If you can't, just print out the picture and take it to an optometrist's office. When I worked at an optometrist's office, we had catalogs upon catalogs of various frame manufacturers and various styles. People came in all the time saying "I want something like this!" wherein the "this" was just a picture from the internet or a magazine or whatever. We had a lot of fun searching for a match, and we almost always found what the customer was looking for.

As far as your "contemporary prescription lenses," any lab can make lenses for any frame, doesn't matter whether it's vintage or new, or where it came from.
posted by amyms at 4:34 PM on June 19, 2008

Those look very similar, though not identical, to the Shuron Ronsir lines.
posted by monocyte at 4:56 PM on June 19, 2008

any lab can make lenses for any frame

Are you sure about that? What if they can't get blanks in the proper size and shape?
posted by Class Goat at 5:03 PM on June 19, 2008

What if they can't get blanks in the proper size and shape?

A real lab (as opposed to a fly-by-night Lenscrafters-style lab) can get blanks in any size or shape. Check with an optometrist's office.
posted by amyms at 5:22 PM on June 19, 2008

They look not dissimilar to Ray-Ban Clubmasters, and I'm finding that "Clubmaster" is the name that other companies like to use for that frame style as well.
posted by mumkin at 5:56 PM on June 19, 2008

Best answer: A very similar frame is the Clubman by Art-Craft. I have a pair, and they're very comfortable.

btw, blanks don't come in various shapes. They come in big circles which are then cut to fit whatever frame you have. Some frames are not intended to have new lenses mounted, (metal frames with no screws, such as those drug store readers, for example) but even then it can be done. It's just not a good idea.
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 5:58 PM on June 19, 2008

Didn't preview.

As far as I know, anything named Clubsomething is a knockoff of the Clubman original.
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 6:00 PM on June 19, 2008

Best answer: I bet Sol Moscot could help you.
posted by bink at 6:56 PM on June 19, 2008

Those are exactly like Noah Bennett of Heroes wears: horn-rimmed glasses. Try second-hand stores attached to churches, they often get a lot of deceased-estate stuff.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 9:30 PM on June 19, 2008

Best answer: Check out Allyn Scura's vintage frames. If You're in California, you can visit a booth at one of the shows on their schedule. I know they had some of these frames recently, because I tried some on.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:03 PM on June 19, 2008

Best answer: I've just been shopping for vintage and vintage style frames myself, and had great luck with eBay. I took a few minutes and searched, and came up with some frames that are close to the style on that page:

1 , 2,3,4, 5,6,7,8, and in red.

Hopefully at least one of those will work for you. They should all be able to take prescription lenses (I use this site for the lenses.)
posted by louche mustachio at 2:49 AM on June 20, 2008

Best answer: Where are you? Phoenix Optical in Oakland, CA has thousands of vintage glasses. I have 1950s (60s?) style horn rims that I got there.

I had a brief problem with the lenses being put in at a slightly off angle. They fixed them for me, but a company less experienced with vintage stuff might have more trouble. That is, I'm not convinced One-Hour-At-The-Mall could have installed lenses in vintage frames correctly. (Then again, maybe I'm wrong.)
posted by small_ruminant at 9:56 AM on June 20, 2008

Shuron make the original style 1950s specs. A friend mentioned them to me last year and I haven't gotten a pair yet but they look like the real deal.
posted by mathowie at 11:41 AM on June 20, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone! Ask MeFi has succeeded where both Yahoo Answers and Wikipedia Reference failed.
posted by Robson at 7:20 AM on June 23, 2008