I want to be Iris Apfel when I grow up.

One of the perks of your eyesight going to hell in midlife is all of the super cute frames you get to wear.

My friend Lisa always said my eyes would one day go to hell. She was right. While it didn’t happen right at 40 as she predicted, I have seen (pun intended) a slow slide of my vision over the last 7-8 years. I don’t remember giggling when she and I would go out and she would dance with the menu in the dimly lit restaurants but I must have because I distinctly remember her admonishments of “Just you wait.” Here we are. I officially need glasses for reading and driving. Anything in the 3-5 foot range is clear as day but up close or distant and it’s all a fuzzy blur. Ok maybe not that bad but when I do put on my glasses I’m always surprised at how clear everything gets. The bummer is I now have to carry two pairs of eyewear with me on most occasions and my purses are not always conducive to that much cargo. Also, I am still not used to needing them so I forget that I can’t see when I go out. We met some friends at Minetta Tavern over the holidays and since we got there a little early we ordered a drink at the bar. Our friends arrived as were sipping dirty martinis and the hostess declared our table ready so I told Scott to go with them and that I would settle up the bar bill. When the bartender handed me the slip with a very tiny, grey type I knew I was in trouble. I had no glasses and the lighting in the bar was so dim and warm as to make everyone look attractive, there was no chance I was reading those numbers. I moved it back and forth in front of my eyes numerous times trying desperately to find any sliver of bright light to illuminate it better to no avail. I just started to laugh. “ I CANNOT see this,” I said to no one in particular. With the bartender busily helping other patrons, I finally turned to the older gentleman with glasses next to me at the bar, and with a laughing surrender, I asked for his help. With a push of his frames closer to his eyeballs, he agreed the lighting in there was atrocious and happily helped me tip and sign my check. I raised my martini to him as a thank you and headed to our table, resigned to the fact I was going to have to start carrying a bigger bag in the City. 

I have to say the one plus to your eyes going to hell as you get older is the plethora of eyewear options available. I have been a product shooter for almost two decades and eyewear has kind of been my niche. I got in with a startup called Salt Optics back in 2007 and continued to add boutique brands to my client list over the years. I love stylish eyewear, so much so that I founded a blog when I moved to New York called Framed&Focused, because I was really inspired by the street styles of New Yorkers and their chic frames. So over the years of shooting for brands like Salt, Dita, Tortoise&Blonde, Christian Roth, and Shauns Ca, I accumulated a collection of eyewear even before I needed them for actually seeing. Now I get to wear them and tailor my mood and outfit to voice my style for the day. Do I want to be bookish and serious, classic black frames it is. Do I want to be quirky and colorful, aqua blue oversized frames it is. Do I want to be a little sexy and still be able to see, the tortoise cat eye it is. It’s playful and amusing and makes me think that deteriorating eyesight is not something to sweat about getting older. I mean have you seen Iris Apfel? Her iconic look is anchored by her unmistakable oversized frames. So have fun with it, and in the words of Iris herself “When we were small children we all played dress up and everybody had a good time. So why stop?”