Don't Succumb to Hideous Reading Glasses
Some weird '80s styles are trendy now and actually...look good?
Hi WNVM-ers,
Cheryl here. I never thought I would see the day when the ginormous ‘80s plastic glasses Fawnia and I wore as kids would be trending, but here we are. (Keep reading to see vintage photos for proof. The things we do for this newsletter!) We have come a long way as far as choice and shopping options for reading glasses, even since I wrote my first story about them for Gloria in 2021. (Yep, I like this topic, and also, to be completely honest, I forgot I had written it. Brain fog is real!)
This week, I’m giving you lots of intel about celebrity reading glasses and how to shop for the item that you will spend countless hours putting on and taking off every five minutes for the next 30 years.
Plus, we curated a ton of news, including Live Aid nostalgia, Carrie Bradshaw’s beauty products, and Margaret Cho hitting the road.
Per usual, you may need to read the entire newsletter in your browser. And, if you’re feeling generous and are wearing your readers and therefore can see the little heart at the bottom of this post, please feel free to click it.
For Your Eyes Only
Admit it, you need reading glasses. Right this way for more info.
By Cheryl
“I think it’s easier to do crack cocaine once than wear reading glasses once, you know what I mean? The minute you put them on…forever!” Seth Meyers said to Amy Poehler, during a recent taping of her podcast, Good Hang. A two minute discussion of lens strength ensued, complete with the two trying each other’s glasses on.
We are in a moment right now when menopause is grabbing all the headlines, older women are being celebrated onscreen, and the beauty industry is starting to recognize that Gen X exists. Similarly, I’m happy to tell you that reading glasses, that punchline of middle age, are being openly discussed and proudly displayed, both in real life and onscreen. And they’re mostly not ugly.
Read on (hopefully you can get through this without squinting) for viral celebrity reader moments, tips on how to buy reading glasses, and tons of options that aren’t hideous or too expensive.
“Old Eyes”
Presbyopia is the condition whereby the eyes lose the ability to see things close up. The term comes from the Greek word for “old eye,” according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. So rude.
I’ve been wearing glasses since third grade and contact lenses since high school. A few years ago, I went to my eye doctor to bump up my prescription so that I could have crystal-clear far vision in order to improve my birding abilities. He asked me how old I was and then hesitated a bit.
“OK, but if I do that you’re probably going to need reading glasses. It will be harder to read close up,” he said. I scoffed. I’d gotten to almost 50 without needing them.
Reader, I needed readers.
Fast forward, and I now wear multifocal contact lenses, which are supposed to correct for your vision at far, middle, and close distances. In reality, because I have what the ancient Greeks would have called “super crappy old eyes,” they do none of these things all that well.
I still need readers, especially in low light conditions. I increased the size of the font on my phone slightly, and invested in reading glasses for every bag, room, coat pocket, surface, location, and vehicle. Because Seth is right — once you need them, you really need them.
How To Choose a Strength
Readers come in strengths (“diopter”) that generally start at +1.00 and increase by quarter increments up to +3.50 or +4.00. Many brands now offer a progressive version, meaning the top of the lens is just clear and the bottom magnifies, so you don’t have to keep taking them off and putting them back on.
If you happen to own a printer, read this chart and follow the instructions for which strength is appropriate for you. Or, do what I did and go to your local drugstore and find the spinning rack of plastic monstrosities. Try on different strengths until you find the one that allows you to read your text messages at the iPhone factory setting font size. By no means should you purchase these, because they probably look like this:
“No one can look good in those glasses. No one except Pedro,” wrote one Redditor under this image from “The Last Of Us.” This is correct — 2003 was not good for reading glasses style and CVS has not gotten the message yet.
Celebrities Wearing Reading Glasses
Both Pascal and Catherine O’Hara wore readers in “The Last of Us.” Jamie Lee Curtis popped hers on to make an emotional declaration in season 4 of “The Bear.” My forever inspo is Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally, when Carrie Fisher tells her someone is looking at her in “personal growth”, and Ryan pushes the glasses down her nose to look.
It’s a prop touch that I find really moving and realistic, although maybe the actors all actually needed the glasses? Anyway, I always notice when someone puts on reading glasses on screen. It’s so relatable!
I first became aware of bougie reading glasses several years ago when Gwyneth Paltrow’s went viral. She wore black chunky frames on social media back in 2020ish, and then named them as a “favorite thing” in a 2022 Wirecutter article: the Caddis Miklos. Then she went viral again at her ski accident trial in 2023, this time wearing the Caddis Metamodernist Scout. Matthew McConaughey has been photographed wearing them too.
In “And Just Like That,” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) wears a lot of reading glasses. This season, she donned a ridiculous pair that Drinks With Broads called “Harry Caray (Harry Carrie) glasses”, a reference I really appreciated as a native Chicagoan.
Apparently, Parker has a relationship with eyewear brand Mykita, because she has worn multiple kooky styles through the years as Carrie and as herself. “...the ladies have arrived in the age of visual aids and [the scene] dispels all doubts definitively – reading glasses are now a style statement,” says the Mykita copy in an article on its website about “AJLT” glasses.
Carrie has popped up in multiple episodes wearing the $629 Meryl style, whcih I don’t think are the Harry Carays. The internet tells me this $15 pair from Vooglam is a good dupe, but the reviews for this company are mixed, so be careful.
Tracee Ellis Ross and Brooke Shields both show up on social media in bold eyewear. Michelle Yeoh is loyal to various chunky cat eye styles. Drew Barrymore is the queen of wacky reading glasses. Pam Anderson wore some square, extremely ‘80s frames to visit the Criterion Closet. (They are the Izipizi Office reading glasses. I actually love these and want the tortoiseshell version. Very Harry Caray.)
Finally, if you need inspiration or just want to scroll through hot famous men in glasses (curated by internet commentator Blakely Thornton), I’d like to recommend the Instagram account Slutty Little Glasses. Take your time, I’ll wait.
OK, now back to reality.
The Styles
We are in a moment where ‘80s styles are trending. Wayfarer-like frames, so-called serial killer glasses, and the huge plastic frames that both Sophia from “The Golden Girls” and I, in middle school, wore in the mid-’80s are everywhere.1
I’m seeing them pop up more in my feed, generally called “grandpa glasses.” Sometimes they have a double plastic bar over the bridge of the nose that look more like aviators and sometimes not, like Pam’s.
Then there are the “serial killer glasses,” which have appeared on practically every woman over 45 in my social media feeds for years. Technically, they are just metal aviators, but they are unfortunately similar to the ones Jeffrey Dahmer wore in a widely circulated 1982 mugshot. They were a popular style in the ‘80s (my dad wore them), but they’ve been forever linked to tragedy, now reclaimed by people with “old eyes.” Gwyneth’s viral courtroom specs fit into this category:
Finally, there is the Wayfarer style, which Tom Cruise pretty single-handedly brought back in the ‘80s, thanks to Risky Business. That inspiration is still everywhere. To me, the unmistakable rectangular chunky frames are the most timeless and easiest to wear. I have the Caddis Porgy, and since they are a bit spendy, I save them as my “going out/dressy” readers, but have cheaper versions strewn all over my apartment.
Where To Shop
Caddis: I’ve mentioned this brand a lot, and they were kind of the first to blanket the internet with marketing. It’s worked on me. The quality is fantastic, but again, if you’re going for volume, the price point is steep. The brand has started to open stores in NYC and California. Prices range from $89 to $160 for basic readers.
Warby Parker: There are a lot of stores around to try them on IRL. The reading glasses styles are less trendy than other places I’ve seen. Think classic tortoiseshell, but they also have the Dahmers, plus you can do sunglasses that are readers. I have regular glasses from here, and the quality and service are great. Pricing is similar to Caddis.
Elisa Johnson: Magic Johnson’s daughter has a tightly curated selection of really cool chunky optical frames that you can buy as readers. Prices range from $115 to $145.
Izipizi: Thanks for the brand tip, Pam! This Parisian company has a ton of really interesting options. The prices aren’t as steep, ranging from $50 to $60.
Zenni: This is my favorite budget option. I have multiple frames from here, because owning 10 pairs of Caddis is a terrible investment. They definitely feel less substantial, but I sometimes prefer that if I’m wearing them for a long time (for example, while writing this story on my laptop) because the Caddis versions can get heavy on the face. The site also has a way to browse retro styles by decade. I have a few pairs of these and get compliments all the time. Prices range from $7 to about $40.
Yesglasses: Another reasonably-priced option whose quality is decent. These grandpas will set you back fifty bucks.
Sunglass Museum: I stumbled on this site looking for a pair of sunglasses that Geena Davis wears in Thelma & Louise, and discovered a fun selection of pretty inexpensive retro-inflected readers. Nothing is over $40.
Moderne Monocle: Since Meta always knows what I am searching for at all times, Instagram fed me an ad for… READING MONOCLES, “a stylish alternative to reading glasses.” I could not stop laughing at sexy monocle lady:
Maybe I’ll grab a monocle when Jane Austen-chic is trending.
Please note: Occasionally, we use affiliate links on our site, but the picks are objectively our recommendations for what we’d buy ourselves.
We are two Gen X journalists who celebrate people of our generation doing cool things, as well as analyze all the '80s and '90s nostalgia in current pop culture, fashion, and beauty. Read more stories like this one here
You Oughta Know
Look closely at slide four because international tough guy Jason Statham wears readers, too. -FSH [Rosie Huntington-Whiteley/Instagram]
Four decades ago from last Sunday, little Fawnia (pictured below), camped out all day, just inches from the VCR in her basement TV cave, to record Duran Duran’s (and The Power Station’s) performance at Live Aid. (Now I can just watch it on YouTube anytime, huh?) But, wait, how did Cheryl and I not know that a 4-part anniversary documentary released on CNN over the weekend? Thank you, If Janet Ran It for the heads-up! -FSH (Oops, we would have known if we had read this NYT interview with the still-prickly Bob Geldof.-CW) [BBC]
I am really jealous I didn’t write this story analyzing all the products visible in Carrie Bradshaw’s medicine cabinet in a three-second scene in last week’s episode of “And Just Like That.” I agree with most of Alison’s thoughts (all that Neutrogena has to be product placement), but also Carrie is a fashion girlie — there is no way she doesn’t have Augustinus Bader’s Rich Cream and an old bottle of P50 1970 (RIP) in there too. -CW [Pie Thoughts]
In comparing her relationship with shoes to Carrie Bradshaw’s, Sarah Jessica Parker regales millennial “Las Culturistas” hosts, Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, with tales of venturing to the local shoe store of yore and trying on Buster Browns. [Las Culturistas]
To fight fascism with humor, Margaret Cho kicks off her new stand-up tour, “Choligarchy” on August 1 — and promises to be her “most blistering and brutally honest show yet!” [WNVM inbox; tour dates and tickets here]
Gah, the company that makes the scratch-n-sniff stickers you definitely remember (dill pickle! Band-aid?!) is going out of business after 55 years. Does this mean the originals I still have lovingly saved in a photo album from the ‘80s are going to skyrocket in value? -CW [Trend Enterprises]
Former Fashionista Editor-in-Chief Alyssa Vingan speaks with an Oasis expert (Oas-ologist?) about the “absolutely niche” Gallagher nepo babies ushering in Cool Britannia 2.0. -FSH [The New Garde]
Teaser pics and casting news for season two of Netflix’s “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” — aka Gen X’s favorite teen mystery show — just dropped. Can’t wait for more excellent fashion inspo from mom, Leanne Fitz-Amobi (British national treasure Anna Maxwell-Martin) and ‘90s-coded sleuthing daughter Pip (Emma Myers). -FSH [Emma Myers/Instagram]
In a Gen X Hollywood takeover news, Mikey from The Goonies/Bob from “Stranger Things” (RIP) — Sean Astin — will run for president of the actors union, SAG-AFTRA. Current pres, Fran “The Nanny” Drescher, who led the guild through the 2023 actors strike, may not run again. Astin would be following family tradition, as mom, Patty Duke, became the union’s second woman president in 1985. -FSH. (This is Samwise Gamgee erasure. -CW, LOTR superfan) [The Hollywood Reporter]
Fawnia, who started wearing glasses in the 2nd grade, had them, too and continues to have PTSD from those years (still wears ties, though).
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"Upgraded" to transition lenses a couple years ago. Being in your mid-40's is so awesome!
I have like a million pairs of Zenni prescription sunglasses because I have bad DISTANCE vision and often get in the car to realize I can’t read the signs. So I stash a pair in everything. (Meanwhile I didn’t really need readers? My eye doc was like 🤷🏻♀️) - J