# Plastic glasses frames and no lenses?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 9, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158 "2012-10-09T01:26:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mewl\_Dear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mewl_Dear)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/1 "2012-10-09T01:26:23Z")
Watching a singing show, the voice maybe, I have seen at least three performers wearing empty frames.
As a long suffering spectacle wearer I find this offensive.
Glasses never made me sexy.
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/2 "2012-10-09T01:26:54Z")
Yeah I’m going to start walking with a zimmerframe cos they’re fashion forward.
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/3 "2012-10-09T01:31:17Z")
Seriously? Fashion (that is, not vision correcting) glasses have been around forever. I wore them in high school, right over my contacts. Hey, \*my \*glasses don’t make me look sexy, because the lenses make my eyes look tiny. But glasses without lenses - or rather, with lenses that didn’t do anything - that’s sexy time!
If glasses weren’t fashion, then you wouldn’t have so many frames to chose from.
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/4 "2012-10-09T01:34:59Z")
> [@WhyNot](#):
>
> Seriously? Fashion (that is, not vision correcting) glasses have been around forever. I wore them in high school, right over my contacts. Hey, \*my \*glasses don’t make me look sexy, because the lenses make my eyes look tiny. But glasses without lenses - or rather, with lenses that didn’t do anything - that’s sexy time!
>
> If glasses weren’t fashion, then you wouldn’t have so many frames to chose from.
Well I knew sunglasses as a fashion thing is decades old but I only noticed the non-scrip regular specs in recent years. Here anyway. Although saying that, in years gone by I would never have thought to ask someone if theirs were for fashion or correcting their vision.
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### Author:  [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/5 "2012-10-09T01:38:57Z")
They used to remove the lenses in movies because of unwanted and unscripted reflections.
I don’t think they do that for TV though.
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### Author:  [@Mewl\_Dear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mewl_Dear)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/6 "2012-10-09T02:12:38Z")
These were empty plastic frames like a toddler would wear.
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### Author:  [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/7 "2012-10-09T04:26:08Z")
Toddlers wear empty plastic frames for fashion?
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/8 "2012-10-09T07:04:02Z")
> [@GreenElf](#):
>
> Toddlers wear empty plastic frames for fashion?
[Hipster toddlers.](http://hipstertoddlers.tumblr.com/)
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### Author:  [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/9 "2012-10-09T07:32:39Z")
I’ve always called glasses worn by people who don’t need them Scarecrow Glasses (If I only had a brain). They’re intended to make the wearer look smart(ish).
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### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/10 "2012-10-09T08:08:35Z")
I have a friend who, in his late teens or early 20s (I forget exactly), started wearing contact lenses, but he then went back to the optician and asked for a pair of glasses with plain glass lenses. They said that was not possible, so instead he got a pair with the lowest magnification available, which he would wear over his contacts. IIRC he said it was because he like having them to fiddle with.
I don’t think he needed them to prove he was brainy. He _is_ brainy. He is a professor of astrophysics now.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/11 "2012-10-09T11:03:39Z")
> [@madmonk28](#):
>
> I’ve always called glasses worn by people who don’t need them Scarecrow Glasses (If I only had a brain). They’re intended to make the wearer look smart(ish).
I’ve done that. It works. People are simple.
Also, there’s some hipster thing about ironic glasses. Possibly that’s what’s going on.
**Mewl Dear** , what is offending you?
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/12 "2012-10-09T13:24:08Z")
Purely cosmetic spectacles (noncorrecting lens) or lensless frame don’t really bother me in the context of a live show (theatre or concert) stage, _as a costume item_. So you want to affect a certain look or persona before the audience, fine (but meanwhile let me hear/see if you got the performance chops to back it up). I suppose the lenseless frames would be a case of people not wanting to pay for anti-reflective coating on mere costume gear.
Lenseless frames on an everyday basis as a fashion statement, OTOH, is just one more evidence of how the phrase “fashion statement” acquires a derisive connotation.
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### Author:  [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/13 "2012-10-09T13:42:23Z")
They are on national TV - got to get sponsor money somehow - do you think Tiger would wear the same 4 shirts every tournement - in order - if there were not money involved?
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### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/14 "2012-10-10T01:01:02Z")
> [@njtt](#):
>
> I have a friend who, in his late teens or early 20s (I forget exactly), started wearing contact lenses, but he then went back to the optician and asked for a pair of glasses with plain glass lenses. They said that was not possible, so instead he got a pair with the lowest magnification available, which he would wear over his contacts. IIRC he said it was because he like having them to fiddle with.
>
> I don’t think he needed them to prove he was brainy. He _is_ brainy. He is a professor of astrophysics now.
Why would plain lenses not be possible? They use them all the time, for people who only need correction on one eye.
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### Author:  [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2012, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/15 "2012-10-10T01:16:15Z")
> [@Napier](#):
>
> Why would plain lenses not be possible? They use them all the time, for people who only need correction on one eye.
Every now and then we used to have a customer order glasses with “plano” lenses. (No prescription at all) for people who wanted them for fashion or smart-looking purposes. I remember one lady who wanted plano lenses with an anti-reflective coating on them for night driving.
Also, there were one or two local companies that had a VERY generous optical benefits package (a completely free pair of glasses every year (!) along with an exam) and usually if I found myself in the lab making up a pair of 0.00 correction glasses, I’d look at the receipt and 9 times out of 10 it’d be an employee of one of those companies.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2012, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/17 "2012-10-10T04:13:24Z")
I’m with **Mewl Dear** - this bugs me, too. I can’t quite put it in words - it’s like they’re mocking my lousy eyesight.
Maybe the closest comparison is if someone had a serious limp that they were self-conscious about, and people with healthy legs were affecting a limp because they thought it was cool.
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2012, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/18 "2012-10-10T04:20:16Z")
Where are these people? I’ve never in my life seen a single person walking around wearing glasses with no lenses. Maybe some with flat no-prescription lenses – I’ve never even thought about it enough to look for it, and if I did I wouldn’t be certain anyway.
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### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/19 "2012-10-10T04:23:17Z")
You people are completely out of touch with pop culture. Lensless glasses are for celebrities and professional atheletes who are promoting nerd chic as a fashion style.
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### Author:  [@\_Olive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Olive)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/20 "2012-10-10T04:23:46Z")
I was talking with someone recently and I couldn’t believe she was working in the yard with frames without lenses. But it turned out she had some new fangled anti-reflection on her lenses. I was shocked I didn’t notice because I am a retired optician.
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2012, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-glasses-frames-and-no-lenses/637158/21 "2012-10-10T13:55:26Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#):
>
> You people are completely out of touch with pop culture. Lensless glasses are for celebrities and professional atheletes who are promoting nerd chic as a fashion style.
Nerds have lenses in their spectacles. Like the man said, plano lenses exist and give you the full look, and celebrities and pro athletes can well afford them (plus an impact-resistant plano lens at least provides eye protection, as in the above yard work example)
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