VIN TAG E S PE C IA L
1980’s- 1990’s
Also in the 1980’s, coloured transparent plastic eyeglasses made by a Cadore company.
Even if it were the fashion and design that made eyeglasses attractive, certainly in the early 1980’s it was the final consumer, who had become more and more fashion-conscious but also much more informed, to establish the course of this evolutionary process. Essential here was the emergence in the 1980’s, of some major brands that would go on to write the history of “Made in Italy” products and spread them throughout the world, conveying their style through accessories, including sunglasses. The aesthetic research went hand in hand with that of technology. Industry companies compared themselves daily with other contexts, from which they can draw information and know-how to transfer into their production processes, adapting to the glasses. In the 1980’s, aesthetic parameters changed because, in the meantime, even lifestyles have undergone changes. Away went the illusions and a certain romanticism of the 1960’s and 1970’s, and in came a return to practicality and pragmatism that express themselves in a more aggressive look, especially for women (now busy on the career front), who wore quite squared sunglasses with noncurved lenses, vague references to men’s models (as indeed happens in fashion) and decorations that were developed mainly at the eyelashes, highlighted by important or interesting material combination details. But, as always, fashion offers many opportunities and chances; everything and its opposite. In fact, towards the end of the 1980’s, minimalist fashion burst onto the scene, which incorporated a carat definition in the mid-60’s for an art movement born in America (Minimal Art). The shapes of glasses, especially for vision, became ever smaller, often retrieved from the past, even from the 1800’s and early 1900’s (many designers were inspired by pieces from private collections or from pieces retrieved in vintage shops) and research oriented toward lightness, towards materials that could also express this concept visually. Certainly not a concept foreign to the history of eyeglasses. Simply think of some of the eyeglasses from the 1700’s-1800’s which were made in very thin tortoiseshell, although the technological approach that now supported this research and that allowed