The Social Significance of Vintage Sunglasses

$45:https://www.etsy.com/listing/196225917/rare-1960s-vintage-bright-yellow-mint?

Imagine a time before reality TV and social media, when privacy was valuable. A period when your personal life was exactly that, as opposed to splashed across screens large, small and in-between. An era during which a pair of sunglasses was far more than a fashion accessory.

Celebrity magazines were once called scandal sheets—they existed to depict our movie and music idols at their worst, not unlike the tabloids of today. The difference is, stars gone by didn’t tolerate such exposure as the cost of fame, much less openly court it. “I want to be alone,” Greta Garbo intoned—and spent much of her life behind her shades hoping to achieve that goal.

Garbo, incognito

Sunnies were so essential to going incognito, it’s no surprise that the original Mad Men capitalized. “Isn’t that you behind those Foster Grants?” teased the 60s print ads for the popular brand.

Yet privacy wasn't the sole province of the famous. In more buttoned-up times, we held our secrets behind our shades—by no means always a good thing. A pair of dark glasses could keep an abused wife’s black eye from view or hide the pain of someone living in the closet. But we also relied on sunglasses when grieving a loss, bearing an embarrassment, or otherwise enduring a difficulty we didn’t feel necessary to post about, moment-by-moment, with accompanying video.

Over-sized was all important to Jackie O

It may seem to some that I’m biting the hand that feeds me. After all, here I am, blogging. Not to mention employing e-commerce to hawk my vintage wares and openly seeking friends and followers on various social networking sites. 

 

$23 on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/131240688564?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

In fact, I’m simply discovering—for myself and, yes, anyone else who happens by—that a pair of sunglasses from before our tell-all time is uniquely indicative of its era. These pieces stand for something, something perhaps not entirely lost. And now, that duly noted, I’ll unplug and reach for another sort of shades, the ones that draw across my bedroom windows, to revel in a little solitude.

Vintage Style Spotlight: The 70s

 The 70s were hardly my favorite decade for style and design. I could barely abide the era’s fashion while living through it, and was apt to attend school in a nipped-waist jacket Mildred Pierce would envy, or do the town in a silk kimono re-purposed as a dress. It was as if the 70s forced me to develop personal style, leading me away from retail and into thrift shops.

STAR, for groupies in training

       Now I view the 70s differently. I can appreciate how all that polyester and nylon meant liberation, especially for unleashing women from their ironing boards. I can understand how “designer” jeans made luxury accessible to all. Even the winged coifs that made it seem our hair could fly off our heads at any moment evoked freedom. There was a slinkiness, a sexiness, an embraced bralessness (though not to the extent American Hustle had Amy Adams portraying) that wasn’t just for hippie chicks.

Distressed, dysfunctional

The shift from flower child to disco diva coincided with what Tom Wolfe labeled “The Me Decade,” and whether you took that to mean atomized individualism or ugly egocentricity at the time, you'd no doubt cringe over what our culture embraced so heartily—gas-guzzlers, cocaine and wardrobes comprised primarily of Qiana. As to the counterculture style that would be called punk, it back-lashed to basics: denim, leather, fishnets, black eye makeup and scarlet lipstick.

Make mock if you will—the 70s are an easy target. Yet to me, vintage items from the era have their charm. Come autumn I’ll be showcasing some classic 70s button-downs for men and women, one pattern wilder than the next. For now, I’m offering nightwear — the stuff that disco dreams are made of. Enjoy!   

Liberate yourself in this "Freedom Front" nightgown by Olga, $17: https://www.etsy.com/listing/195100547/simply-sexy-tulip-print-70s-era-nylon?