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!

Oh I see this alot at the moment where I live ... it's one of those looks that woman are doing to look trendy or different yet they're all looking the same!😂 I see it's a middle class fashion actually and in my area starting around 35 I'd say. Cringe. They hop out of the car on school run in baggy trousers Deirdre Barlow glasses and socks on show with baseball type boots or crocs ... I'm a great believe in everyone should feel free to wear what they like, but them thinking they look different and unique is hilarious

Perhaps not my taste, but surely the opposite of hiding away? Quite envious of those who DON'T feel they need something unobtrusive and nondescrpt now I think about it!

Bizarre that this aimed at women specifically. Do you get this bothered when men wear something you don’t like?

People tend to not so invested in what men wear as it is not their "job" to look attractive. Women must consider what the world makes of them at all times.

So much internalised misogyny on this thread.

How do you know they think they are unique and different?

How do you know they think they look different? Do you think they just haven't noticed the other women dressing similarly? Do you assume all the men on the train to work are fucking idiots who haven't noticed the other men in suits or is it just women you assume are very stupid and shallow.

Yup, it's gross.

Many of the examples here of large or brightly coloured clothing and accessories are examples of not dressing for the male gaze (I.e. dressing for the female gaze).

We are immersed in a culture where it is assumed women will package themselves attractively for men. We need to look at how this influences the way we feel about clothing before we start making bold statements about what middle aged women should and shouldn't be wearing.

This. I'm long sighted not short sighted but wear my glasses all the time now I'm getting old. The peripheral difference generated by the narrower glasses makes me feel quite sick. I couldn't care less what people think my face looks like

I love Pru! Nothing wrong with embracing colour at a certain age. Much more interesting than fading away into beige.

I have them. I have varifocals and astigmatism in both eyes. I dont have them as a fashion statement but because larger frames are better for my complicated prescription.

And ageism

Too "try hard".

Too try hard? Trying to be trendy? What should we wear then oh wise tastemakers?

Mine are electric blue and I chose them because I like them. Not to mention this fashion saves me several hundred euro in lens grinding. So feck off with your sneering. And please remember this thread when your vision turns to shite, because it will.

I love Prue Leith's look btw. Ha.

You think it's because you don't like a fashion trend rather than because you've been sneery about women who do?

I don’t personally like the style, I don’t wear it. But I like when people have their own style and dress in a way that they feel good- I often think people look fabulous even if I wouldn’t dress that way.

I'd much rather the trend for bright and sometimes loud spectacles than the joyless rimless thin wire framed ones that were about a few years ago.

Like any other accessory fashions come and go but personally I love that people have so much choice in what they wear on their face.

You made perfect sense!

(and get well soon)

I confess I was a bit sucked into this style a while back and thought it would suit my grey hair etc. Bought a pair of reading glasses and ironically they didn’t hide my face at all, as OP thinks, but magnified all the wrinkles under my eyes. 🤓

DD bought a school bag over the summer. Navy blue with pink lining. She was so excited when she bought it. It brought her joy. She returned it at the last minute and got an all-black bag because she was frightened it would look "too try hard" and she'd be bullied.

Why do we do this to ourselves? Why enforce conformity? Who is benefiting?

The whole point of fashion is trying out different things. Of course we don’t all have the same taste. I wear boring glasses but I have no issue with people who wear bright ones. There are definitely worse fashion trends around.

I really don’t love that middle-aged women are constantly a target of negative comments.

And yet you are mocking people for wearing what they want and no I am not being defensive as I wouldn't be bold enough to wear such attire.

I'm guessing you're either young or have decent eyesight. Frame decor aside, the size of glasses increases to cope with age-related vision deterioration. This commonly starts kicking in at around 40 (ask an optician).

I used to have gorgeous dinky little glasses when I had a slight issue with long sight in my 30s.

Now I'm ancient and blind as a bat in all visual fields, I need varifocals which , due to the multiple prescriptions, take up a lot of facial real estate.

I took my teenage son to Specsavers to get some prescription sunglasses for his birthday and practically all you could buy there are outlandish frames that made him look ridiculous and he's pretty open to a bit of bling. He ended up not getting sunglasses because he couldn't find a single pair of frames that he liked. So if the only choices are Timmy Mallet-style then middle-aged women getting glasses don't have a whole lot of choice in the matter.

Yes, it is horrible isn't it, worse at secondary school. My DD is a young teen and very interested in fashion design, is adventurous with jewellery but definitely converts to conformity for school. I'm hoping 6th form college in a few years will be more accepting as my DS definitely wears what he wants now he attends and has his tribe!