John Lennon was quite shortsighted and he saw everything in a blur on stage during the early days of Beatlemania. Manager Brian Epstein probably thought that glasses did not fit the image of the group and contact lenses only became available a few years later. Many hysterical fans threw their own glasses to the group during concerts so these girls joined the blur with their idol. A few years later, the Beatles had become so established that they could dictate their own terms and reveal more of their individuality. John Lennon created a hype when he started wearing glasses in public. The flower power crowd, male and female alike, went for lookalikes of Lennon's round hippie glasses. The style remained quite popular among left wing students until the mid 1970's.
The Algha glasses shown here by Maria are a fine example of the style. They were bought by a girl from Hamburg in 1973. The prescription of the glasses is very mild but the German girl used them often to get rid of her frequent headaches. She never regarded herself a hippie and two decades later, she was indignant when I called these her old hippie glasses :).
During the selection process for the photo shoot, Maria discovered the hippie glasses and decided that she liked them for a bit of variety. Large frames did not work for Maria as the frames touched and even pushed her cheeks but the hippie glasses are so thin that there was no discomfort.
This weblog is about portrait photography but here an exception is made, showing the model's lovely outfit. No flower power style, let alone the image of demonstrating students in their denim uniforms. Four decades is a long time indeed. To quote the legendary story teller and uilleann piper Seámus Ennis from Finglas, North county Dublin:
"Ah the years gone by
make moist the eye"
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