Emma 214 - 216

Fine, slightly enigmatic posing by Emma in striking Zenni glasses reminiscent of the style in the mid 1970's. Note the vertical stripes of light in the lenses. This effect is characteristic of  "Formlenti" lenses, an invention of the early 1970's. Traditional myodisc lenses have a circle shaped "bowl" surrounded by a carrier lens. The bowl has the extreme strength needed by high myopic ladies and the carrier lens is simply used to fill the rest of the frame. The carrier lens can be positive, plano or in some cases, slightly negative. In all cases, the demarcation between bowl and carrier lens is abrupt and thus focusing the viewer's attention to the special design. Many ladies disliked their myodisc glasses as their handicap was all too visible. Formlenti were definitely a good alternative, more pleasing to the eye of most viewers than the circle shaped bowls. However, the innovation came too late to become a commercial success. In the late 1960's, contact lenses became widely available and high myopic ladies were among the very first to switch to the new, almost invisible correction.
Some Formlenti lenses have a carrier lens that is beveled under an angle of 45 degrees at the back. This catches the light in the dark, causing the vertical stripes seen in these three portraits and even more notably in the Christian Olivier pair used in many of my photo shoots (e.g. the "Queen of the Night" series taken on Bray Beach with the great Czech model Simona Pelankova"). Zenni beveled the lenses in these red glasses the same way so that the glasses could be folded up neatly. This pair was ordered with my life partner Nel in mind and fitted with her prescription for long distance, minus twelve. Nel did not like the Formlenti effect so I ordered an empty frame that was subsequently fitted with 1.74 progressive lenses by ciliaryblue in England. Ironically, this company did not succeed in reducing lens thickness enough for the glasses to be folded up....