Guest Editor – Giorgina Waltier

This month our Guest Editor Giorgina Waltier, Retail Editor at GQ  Magazine, talks about her experience of wearing spectacles and the influence they’ve had on her style.

In all honesty I have probably needed to wear glasses for over a year, however, I only decided to own up to this reality very recently, well last week in fact. But rest assured there are a number of explanations for my optical avoidance and while they definitely vary in sensibility they all seemed very much valid to me at the time.
Let’s start with the most sensible explanations. Firstly I am long sighted meaning I only have problems seeing things that are far away and as I can’t drive (that’s another story) my minus-one vision hadn’t really effected my every day life. Ok, I actually only have one sensible explanation, so moving on to the not so sensible explanations. Firstly, as far as I was concerned, every frame I had ever tried on (until now that is) had made me look utterly hideous. I have worked in fashion for years so I am fully aware of the high style credentials that glasses have but this was meaningless to me as all previous experiences had left me convinced that no frames suited me and therefore there was no point in trying them on and every point in pretending that I had 20:20 vision. Second not so sensible explanation: I’ve never worn glasses before and simply didn’t see myself or want to see myself as a “glasses wearer”. Third not so sensible explanation: I was worried that my boyfriend would confirm my fears and think that I looked as hideous as I thought I did …..the list goes on.

I was, however, forced to re-evaluate these explanations, or shall we say excuses, when I realised that I could no longer read the street sign at the end of my road which I was sure I could do only a few months ago. This discovery sent me into a hypochondriac-style frenzy in which I convinced myself that I must have some kind of degenerative ophthalmic disorder.  Thankfully my visit to the opticians reassured me that this was not the case but my need for glasses was confirmed and that, in a nutshell, is how I became a glasses wearer and I have to say it’s not been as thoroughly painful as I thought it would be.

I am slowly becoming used to seeing my face in the mirror with my new tortoiseshell Ray-Bans, but best of all (asides from the fact that my boyfriend claims he likes them which is of course good news – another fear dispelled) they actually compliment, if not improve, a lot of my outfits.  My regular Breton striped top, boyfriend jeans & stiletto combo has now become somewhat “Parisian chic” while my go-to black dress has become more of a statement piece rather than an “if all else fails” option. Basically I feel like my glasses have upped my position in the office style stakes, which, given the fact I work at Conde Nast is a pretty tremendous achievement. This is, after all, an office in which all the employees look like they ought to be on the covers of the magazines they work for rather than running them.  Of course I don’t want to sound entirely shallow, the fact that I now have clear vision is obviously the most important thing but improving my wardrobe as a bi-product is a huge advantage. Perhaps now that I can see clearly I ought to think about learning how to drive? BSM here I come.