the look: nerd safari

So, I recently decided that I needed a pair of reading glasses. Along with the grey hairs Ive been noticing lately, its another sign of aging that Im pretty sure Im still too young for--Im only 27 you guys! But also, you cant argue with cold hard facts, and ever since Ive been wearing them, my tension headaches have gone away. So, I guess Im keeping them. Great. 

Anyway, guided by my past experience with sunglasses shapes, the pair I chose are slightly oversized and perfectly round. You might think, having heard that description, that theyre, like, hipster glasses, or whatever. But youd be dead wrong. Because, while Id originally had my eye on a pair of tortoise-shell frames (similar to the ones sported by the future Mrs Richard OConnell in this still from The Mummy, which I just saw for the first time over christmas and which I high-ly recommend) for some reason I wasnt able to get them and instead went with these black wire frames which, when I wore them at work, prompted the high-school-girl cashiers to ask me if Im a huge Harry Potter fan, or what. Great. 

As you can see, they were right to ask (and yes Ive read all the HP books, duh) But so what? I need them, and glasses always look nerdy anyway. But actually, not always! Lately Ive been inspired by some positive examples of bespectacalization. Thematically, most of it--namely, Rachel Weiss in the Mummy, and Erin Wasson in this sun-baked editorial by Mario Testino for the April Issue of French Vogue--is totally turn-of-the-century-common-wealth-colonial. Like, cambridge graduates doing fieldwork in India or Egypt (or wherever, as long as its warm) in 1895. Does that make sense? Like, rumpled linen, sun-bleached white button-ups, printed silk scarves, and lots of camel and khaki. Aristocrat-on-Safari, I think is the most accurate way of describing it... 

Check those mixed prints! Im not sure why I love her socks-and-sandals so much... but I do! Now, it might be my winter despair that is causing me to see even glasses as evocative of warm weather. Because, Im pretty sure theyre not. Nevertheless, the midst of all these grey skies and endless slushy snow, how amazingly attractive is the dry amber heat captured in these photographs? And dont you find, on some level, that her glasses add to the ambience? Even just a little? Ah, le sigh... I wish Id been able to get mine in tortoise shell, too! Plus, the Nazca Lines are super cool and interesting! And of course, so  mysterious, as well. Ive never been, but I studied them in school once, you know! If you want to, you can read about them! Also, I didnt know until now that, along with the Nazca Lines,  Mr. Testino is Peruvian, himself! Did you?