Vintage American Optical Sunglasses

What Vintage American Optical Sunglasses Are

They're not a brand; they're an era. Vintage is considered anything made between the 1920s and the 1980s. Anything before the 1920s is actually considered antique. Some stores don't distinguish between the two, but there is a difference based on when they were made (and a few style modifications).

Vintage sunglasses can be almost any shape, simply because of the wide range of time they cover. You can go for the angled 1980s style or the completely opposite round shape that was popular between the 1920s and 1960s.

One thing that distinguishes vintage sunglasses from antique is the presence of the nosepiece. Nosepieces didn't exist prior to the 1920s, so that played a key part in the expansion of available sunglass and eyeglass styles.

Finding Your Frames

If you didn’t have any luck scouring the attic looking for a glint of light bouncing back from a thin metal frame, you can still find some vintage American optical sunglasses online.

The most obvious place to look is eBay. Be sure to check the seller's reputation and make sure to notice whether you're getting true vintage styles or replica vintage styles. It's not that the sellers will try to trick you; sometimes it's just easy to overlook it in the description. Then you wind up with a brand new gleaming gold frame in the mail, wondering why it doesn't look aged at all. Here are a few places to try:

• These American Optical aviators are made to look like the very first aviator sunglasses. They were designed for military pilots in the 1930s.

• Eyeglasses Warehouse is a sincerely cool spot to check out if you're looking for antique or vintage American optical sunglasses. Here, you can find:
  • 18th century spectacles
  • 19th century spectacles
  • 19th century riding temple spectacles
  • Civil War spectacles
  • Goggles
  • Windsor eyeglasses
  • Round eyeglasses
  • Lorgnettes

The list goes onto more recent decades from there! It's a remarkable selection of old frames.

• RubyLane.com has quite a selection of ladies' vintage styles as well.

The Appeal of Vintage

What's old is new again. You can see it in the styles that show up on celebrity faces time and time again. Look at any fashion magazine and you'll see styles from yesteryear. Vintage eyeglasses turned to sunglasses are no different.

When it comes to vintage styles, you'll see websites that claim to sell vintage glasses, but they actually sell a mix of vintage and antique styles. On these sites, you'll find round, cat-eye, aviator, big, and even futuristic styles. All of those styles can be truly vintage (styles from the 1920s to the 1980s), but in some cases, those websites with vintage sunglasses (or eyeglasses) offer antiques, too. In most cases, be prepared to pay more for the antique frames than the vintage ones.

How Optical Sunglasses Work

In many cases, the glasses don't start out tinted deeply enough to be considered sunglasses. That's easy to fix, though. It's even easy to put your own prescription in if you found someone else's glasses.

When you get your prescription from the optometrist, you can take that with you—along with your vintage frames—to any optical shop to have your prescription put in. Not only that, but you can have your lenses tinted almost any color you'd like, in any depth you'd like. You'll be your own sunglasses stylist.

Good Things from the Good Old Days

Possibly one of the best things is, you won't necessarily have to pay out of pocket for a frame when you need a "new" pair of sunglasses. That is, if you're lucky enough to find a pair of your grandma's or grandpa's frames lying around.

With some types of prescriptions, the frames could actually end up costing you more than the prescription lenses. This is a way around that. If you purchase an authentic vintage pair of frames from the internet, however, be prepared to pay more than you would for a more contemporary pair.