Sonia 039

Retro fashion put an end to the Golden Era of frame design and during the next two decades (the 1990's and the 2000's), the streets were poorer places for marvelous sightings. In the Netherlands, the change came quite abruptly, in 1989. All of a sudden, virtually all opticians had the the large frames replaced by small, rather dull retro frames. Very soon, this had its impact on what one saw in the streets. The change came a few years later in the surrounding countries and it was also more gradual. It's noteworthy that some brands kept designing larger frames, probably in an attempt to change the tide. Silhouette bravely kept producing larger frames until around 1998. They then chose a new niche for themselves by concentrating on rimless glasses. The pair shown here by Sonia was made in the early or mid 1990's and it's a testimony of their struggle against the tide. the frame has the marble pattern characteristic for the 1990's but also some eye catching novelties like the silver balls at the edge and the room left open for so called floating lenses. The silver balls were not taken over by other players in the field but the floating lens would be adopted by many brands. The striking frame must have sold poorly and I can't remember a single sighting in the streets. Martin from Cologne supplied these glasses five years ago. Sonia is the third model posing in them, being preceded only by Astrid (599) in 2011 and Iris (306) in the winter of 2014 / 2015.