Thanks for all your advice. Pretavoir sale was my friend - all in for £100
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For everyday off the peg readers these are great I have three pairs- nice designs in the men’s section
All the cliches about losing your glasses and not being able to find em are in my experience true… so getting a couple of pairs or even three isn’t going to break the bank
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I resisted for ages on this basis - despite being assured by an optometrist friend that wearing or not wearing doesn’t affect your rate of deterioration. I finally took the plunge last year and have found that I have hardly used my reading glasses as I can manage without, but I find my distance glasses really useful now for driving at night, watching TV and football. I realise now that for years I hadn’t been seeing clearly at distance as I had got so used to the blur I thought that was normal. My experience of watching football (both on TV and at the ground) is significantly enhanced. I don’t like wearing them but the benefit makes them worthwhile.
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I feel like this has definitely been the case with me. Gone from perfect vision 4-5 years ago to needing a third prescription. Genuinely think working from home looking at the same screens the same distance away is not helping
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I’ve got a couple of “nice” pairs which are varifocal that I wear all the time and then 4 pairs of cheap readers that I leave in strategic positions in the house (in the kitchen, in my office (attic) in the bathroom and next to the bed.
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Always this. When I first got readers I spent sixty-odd quid at the opticians. Total waste of money.
Now I buy them four pairs at a time from Tiger Tiger (but will check these out).
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Nice, just ordered a pair for the studio… 
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Same … plus prescription readers were heavy / clunky as well as expensive- especially every time I either sat on them and bust the arms or lost them altogether…… couldn’t justify the cost
In my experience, beware of the optician that serves you free coffee. When you see the bill, you’ll wish it was brandy.
Take the insurance. Or some insurance. Like us, glasses almost always end up battered, broken and/or lost.
Take off your glasses when embarking on vigorous pillow fights with kids. This one’s more of a note to self.
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Beware of anyone serving free coffee. The coffee is likely awful.
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My dad took us sledging in the 70s, had to drive back in the snow without them. Terrifying in retrospect.
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Bought some as cheaper than Izipizi which Id just broken again
The lens are fine for reading but the peripheral is a bit off - wondering if every brand will slightly different for that
I only use em for reading tbh x
Pretty sure they’re good for returns if they don’t work out for you
I’ve worn glasses since I was 4, so they are basically a part of my face by now. I need to wear prescription glass on regular and sunglasses alike, which is not cheap!
Having said that, generally speaking I don’t skimp on either frames or lenses. Cheap versions of both end up hurting my eyes, giving me headaches etc, and since I have to wear them at all times I feel like I should have the most comfort and the best I can afford, always. My prescription is not so easy which means I always have to have lenses made but even if not there is no way I would ever wear those drugstore reader glasses. I am also generally suspicious of the lenses some frame makers give away for free when you get a pair. To me it’s a question of health first.
Once you wear a pair of properly made acetate frames you can instantly tell the difference to the cheap stuff. Or maybe I just drank the kool-aid. Still I stand by my statement. (If you manage to get real horn or tortoiseshell, then it’s another level entirely).
A couple of brands for frames that I like are Morgenthal Frederics (NYC Based, used to be better but still pretty good quality),
Lafont (from Paris, funky, Charlie Haden used to wear them),
Garrett Leight/GLCO/Mr. Leight (all owned by the same family - the son runs the business out of LA and the dad was the chief designer for Oliver Peoples).
Moscot (NYC based, still independent I think, easy to find worldwide though)
A few I haven’t had the chance to try yet but heard good things:
Banton Frameworks (very limited series but look great and well made)
L’Ingenieur Chevallier (Paris shop that used to make glasses for Louis XV or something like that…they work with horn and tortoise shell, still. Mucho mucho $$ though, but as soon as I win the lottery that’s where I’m going)
Lohause (looks interesting from instagram ads, but I haven’t tried a pair on)
In the long run Lasik would have been cheaper but what’s the fun in that?
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Just to leave this on a less sour note, digging for vintage frames in fairs/secondhand stores etc can be a lot of fun, and if you’ve done your research on brands, materials and eras, once in a while you can hit the jackpot and get a real quality pair for not much money at all.
In 2020 I came across my favorite Morgenthal Frederics frame in a used online shop for a very reasonable price - around US$100 in today’s money. I was really happy, and bought them on a spot as a new pair in acetate runs about US$400. Imagine how happy I was when they arrived and it was actually a real horn frame, which is US$2000 (absolutely crazy money I’d never pay in my pretty much perennial non-lottery winner condition). In musical terms like finding a rare modern soul 7" in a boot sale. If I keep them from harm they should outlive my kids.
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I’ve been wearing varifocals for years and the quality has improved enormously. I’ve paid extra to get the totally blended whole lens approach, which means you don’t see any demarcation between the differing lens treatments. Not cheap but, given I wear them pretty much constantly now, it’s worth it. I went all in and got my pairs from Cutler and Gross.
On the wearing glasses and seeing eye sight deteriorate, it’s definitely weakened since moving to varifocals. But, by how much compared to general aging, I’ll never know.
Hope that’s helpful.
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