To ask when Timmy Mallett became such a style icon for middle aged women?

[PuttingOnTheKitsch]

Or Dennis Taylor for that matter.

I'm talking about the ludicrously OTT spectacle frames that seem to be de rigueur for women these days.

Men don't seem to be encouraged to hide their gasp aging face behind overly large spectacle frames. Why are women being conned into it? It looks daft!

I've always thought they should make colostomy bags in a range of attractive colours and patterns. Now there's a gap in the market waiting to be filled.

Not sure if that's a joke or a serious suggestion?

There actually is a huge issue with older people refusing to use things that would make their life easier. Not colostomy bags obviously as if you need one have to have one. But things like hearing aids, mobility aids, grab rails etc.

I've long thought that they need to be marketed differently - grab rails in stylish bathroom colours, funky hearing aids etc. I think it is starting to happen as the children of the 60s age - there are interesting walking sticks and walkers out there at a price now.

I don't wear brightly coloured glasses frames because I need expensive lenses. Having multiple pairs of glasses and changing prescriptions would make it very expensive. Neutral frames it is then!

@BishyBarnyBee that's actually a serious suggestion. I had a stoma for nine months after bowel damage and found the bags depressingly drab. Some pretty designs on the outside would really have cheered me up.

I know what you mean about older people and hearing aids! My DM has one but is constantly "forgetting " to put it in. Makes phone calls almost impossible which is difficult as she lives in Spain.

Well you are coming across as very insecure and lacking in confidence. Its absolutely fine to not like a fashion trend, but belittling the women who do like it in such a cruel way is very odd.

They do do them! Not the easiest to find but a lot online with various patterns etc

just found a photo of my Nana in the 80s with large glasses. They suit her far more than the little ones she occasionally had. It’s not new. She has been dead for 25 years. I forgot she wore them.

They certainly didn’t hide her face. And my Nana certainly wasn’t a woman that would hide herself away. She was who she was and unashamed to wear and do what she liked. If she was in the room everyone knew it.

The whole premise that women wear these to hide their face is completely flawed. Which would say more about how the Op views women, more than anything else.

I have large eye glasses because I have serious issues with my sight/eyes and the bigger the lenses the better. Been the same since childhood. My colouring suits darker glasses like black, red, blue. My latest glasses are red. To disappoint everyone, I don’t jump out of my 4x4 in neon jewellery on the brunch run. I usually wear business attire. I am pleased to say the glasses haven’t stopped me earning a 6 figure salary. So I’ll cry into my ££££

I wear big glasses because I have children just out of the terrible age and my plastic frames can take a degree of punishment wire-frames couldn't touch. Also, they cost £30 online rather than the £500 my husband spends.

Also, I think they look better on me. Isn't it up to me what looks better on me?

@spikeandbuffy that's great! Wish I'd known about that at the time.

I don't think the OP meant to be very rude (unlike many others on this thread). I think this is just internalised misogyny and a faulty conclusion.

I think she noticed middle aged women in bold glasses occupying lots of visual space in public and it made her feel uncomfortable. Like most of us, she is probably a feminist so tried to interpret this discomfort through a feminist lens.

Young and/or attractive women all occupy visual space pretty much regardless of how they present themselves, but we are used to this so it seems normal. Middle aged women typically don't. Hence the feeling of dissonance.

Check your feminism isn't oriented to the male gaze (I know that mine was throughout my 20s)

She was being pretty rude to be fair.

It's a fashion trend, some people like it and some people don't, same as all fashion trends !

Yes she definitely was, but some people really ran with it.

First prize to the poster who managed to get away with using "Autistic lesbian" in their post describing what they hated about this look.

Although, tbh, 'autistic lesbian' implies comfortable, practical clothes you actually like, so maybe we need to make Autistic Lesbian Core a thing...

Missed that gem, but surely autistic lesbian means "doesnt need to dress in accordance to DH's idea of what he finds desirable" 😉

I have varifocals - had them for years. Always fairly bog standard frames, never needed huge frames. The big frames are in fashion at the moment, that's all. The 2 women I know who are wearing them both look slightly ridiculous. The specs are used as a descriptor by people at work - 'you know, the one with the really big glasses....' and they're all you really notice about them. Useful if you need something to hide behind I guess.

Varifocals work better with a bigger lens, that’s just fact.
And nobody is hiding behind large magnifying glasses, are they?

I'd be fascinated to find out your frame size so that I can work out what you consider to be "bog standard" vs "ridiculous fashion".

Mine are
153 frontal width, 52 lens width, 145 temple, 21 bridge
145 frontal width, 55 lens width, 145 temple, 19 bridge
153 frontal width, 52 lens width, 145 temple, 19 bridge

All are great for my varifocals. Anything smaller and i think i'd struggle.

Bog standard varifocals. DH's similar, perhaps 0.5cm wider.

Well they are very old fashioned. What my daughter would call granny glasses. Swings and roundabouts.

I know what you mean OP. We have a couple of these types working in HR.

I also remember a bunch of them around Covid time in East London trying really hard to be alternative and have their kids look like they’d been battered by a mismatched jumble sale. I think they were going for the more colourful version of Helen Bonham Carters studied ‘upper class and don’t give a fuck’ wackiness aesthetic.

I need deeper lenses (top to bottom) that that for good vision

These types?
People whose dress sense you don’t like?
Nice.

By ‘these types’ I was clearly referring to the Timmy Mallet/Cbeebies presenter dressed crew so no need to make it into a civil rights issue. It’s not that deep.

And it’s not that I don’t like their attire, or even really care that much what others wear. It’s just when I see them it comes across as inauthentic and try-hard, just like a kids tv presenter - loud and ‘sunny’. I also side-eye the 20 something men wearing ‘ironic’ mullets.

😂 So it's fashion and nowt to do with vision requirements.

'I need deeper lenses (top to bottom) that that for good vision'
So what have you done in the past when these type of huge specs were unavailable? They are a very recent thing.