 Emerald Green women's cat eye glasses,c. 1958 | |
| Type | Eyewear |
|---|---|
.jpg)
Cat eye glasses (sometimes called "cat eyes" or "cat glasses") are a shape ofeyewear. The form is closely related to thebrowline style, differentiated by having an upsweep at the outer edges where thetemples or arms join the frame front. Cat-eye glasses were popular in the 1950s and 1960s among women and are often associated with thebeehive hairstyle and other looks of the period. They preceded the largebug-eye glasses of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
An early precursor of the cat-eye eyeglass shape was American Optical's Ful-Vue product, from 1931, in which the hinges were placed on the upper portion of the eyeglass frame to reveal the wearer's eye from the sides. Window-dresserAltina Schinasi later designed what she called the Harlequin frame, named for the mask of theHarlequin character from Italiancommedia dell'arte, then popular in fashion and design. Schinasi collaborated with popular boutique Lugene to manufacture them. One of the first pairs was bought byVogue andVanity Fair writer and socialiteClare Boothe Luce, raising the profile of the new style further. Fashion designerClaire McCardell andAmerican Optical released their own version of the style in 1952, the first eyewear line by a fashion designer.[1]
The style was popularized in the next two decades by celebrities and actresses such asMarilyn Monroe,[2]Catherine Deneuve,[3] andAudrey Hepburn.[4] Other notable wearers of cat-eye eyeglasses includeBarry Humphries asDame Edna Everage,Jane Jacobs,Amy Lamé,Lisa Loeb,Dinah Manoff,Elizabeth Taylor,Shirley Chisholm,[5]Mary Whitehouse,Allison Wolfe andBarbara Windsor.
The cat-eye shape fell out of fashion after the 1960s but was revived through 1990s fashion, and was popularized again in the late 2010s, in part by models and influencers such asBella Hadid,Emily Ratajkowski, andKendall Jenner.[5]
By the mid-2020s, the style remained visible across the mainstream and fashion eyewear industry and was also incorporated intosmartglasses.[6] One example is the Ray-Ban Meta Skyler, a camera- and audio-enabled AI glasses line that features a cat-eye frame.[7]
Media related toCat eye glasses at Wikimedia Commons