{"id":189,"date":"2020-05-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classicspecs.com\/closerlook\/classic-creatives\/how-to-style-buddy-holly-glasses\/"},"modified":"2023-04-28T09:14:04","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T16:14:04","slug":"how-to-style-buddy-holly-glasses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.classicspecs.com\/closerlook\/how-to-style-buddy-holly-glasses\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Style Buddy Holly Glasses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Enter the 1950s: an era of rock n\u2019 roll and Buddy Holly<\/a> glasses. Rock n\u2019 roll owes its rise during this era to incredible musical pioneers like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Buddy Holly. But of these pioneers, Buddy Holly was probably the true pioneer of a particular kind of fashion and style in rock n\u2019 roll. We\u2019re talking, of course, about Buddy Holly glasses, and the rock n\u2019 roll star himself helped to put the Buddy Holly glasses style on the charts as one of the most iconic looks in history. So what exactly are Buddy Holly glasses? When we talk about \u201cBuddy Holly glasses,\u201d we\u2019re referring to a pair of thick, black, horn-rimmed glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this day, Buddy Holly glasses are one of the most sought-after kinds of styles for anyone who wears glasses. They\u2019re also probably the most expensive pair of prescription glasses ever\u2014the authentic ones, at least. In 1990, the widow of Buddy Holly sold one of two pairs of frames that Buddy Holly wore for $50,000. In 1998, the last pair was sold at an auction for $80,000, which now sits in the city of Lubbock\u2019s Buddy Holly exhibit. But what makes them all the rage? What\u2019s so special about Buddy Holly’s glasses?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like a lot of other possessions and products, glasses have this relation to what and how people express themselves. And this is especially true of Buddy Holly’s glasses. It\u2019s not quite so much the fact that Buddy Holly’s glasses are extra special or of better quality, but rather the association it has with the rock n\u2019 roll world of the 1950s and the image that Buddy Holly himself pushed through during his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in Lubbock, Texas in 1936, Buddy Holly was the fourth and last child in his family. Starting from childhood, he was influenced by a variety of musical styles ranging from gospel to country, and rhythm and blues which all contributed to the musical style that he made central to his career as a rock n\u2019 roll pioneer. But the Buddy Holly glasses didn\u2019t come until his serious pursuit of music as a career began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite your initial impressions of the musician, he didn\u2019t have his iconic Buddy Holly glasses his entire career. Buddy Holly very much wanted to be like other musicians because he did not want to wear glasses\u2014especially on stage. After all, how could he be a rock n\u2019 roll enthusiast and performer if he had glasses on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With determination, he tried out an early form of contact lenses, but that plan fell through because they were too big and uncomfortable, meaning that you could only wear them for brief moments at a time. Considering contact lenses were out of the question, he tried to play without glasses. Keep in mind he had a vision of 20\/800 in both eyes. This plan proved to be futile as well because, at a particular show, Buddy Holly dropped his pick. Unable to see, he had to get down on his hands and knees to find it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddy Holly realized that glasses were the only way to go and that there was no way around it. But considering he had gathered a good following, he assumed that glasses shouldn\u2019t change that as long as his music kept his fans happy. But even then, the Buddy Holly glasses did not come into play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, he wore frames with a combination of plastic and wire, usually called split-frame glasses. During his rise as a musician, he and the Crickets became well acquainted with the Everly Brothers. They essentially told him that if he was going to wear glasses, he might as well go all out and make a statement with them. With this encouragement, he donned a pair of thick black frames, which bolstered his popularity. To be fair, these were probably the first pair of glasses that can be considered the first Buddy Holly glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the truly iconic $80,000 Buddy Holly glasses came from his fateful meeting with an optometrist named Jesse Davis Armistead. Dr. Armistead, a simple optometrist living in Texas, was vacationing in Mexico. It was from this neighboring region of the Lone Star state that he could find the perfect pair of glasses for Buddy Holly\u2014a pair of heavy, thick, horn-rimmed Faoisa glasses\u2014one in black and one in tortoiseshell. Buddy Holly chose the black ones and kept the tortoiseshell in his file, which he never wore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From then on, Buddy Holly’s glasses created a sensation until his untimely death. Even in 1958, the idea of \u201cBuddy Holly glasses\u201d caught on fairly easily. Contrary to what Buddy Holly thought would happen, it didn\u2019t hamper the image of a rocker\u2014it struck the public, specifically teenagers, as more of a nerd-gone-cool kind of concept. Part of the reason Buddy Holly could break this image was that he was good at what he did: he wasn\u2019t just any stiff passing off as a rock n\u2019 roll star trying to be a trendsetter. This was obvious considering that John Lennon of The Beatles remarked, \u201cBuddy Holly was the first one that we were aware of in England who could play and sing at the same time – not just strum, but actually play the licks.\u201d Buddy Holly was skillful, and as a result, the Buddy Holly glasses became a significant byproduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of going against the rebellious spirit of rock n\u2019 roll, the Buddy Holly glasses accentuated and emboldened it. After all, breaking the image of what a rocker was supposed to look like was a rebellious act, and the Buddy Holly glasses only reinforced the idea that rock n\u2019 roll didn\u2019t need to have a particular mold. Thus he set his place as the first rock n\u2019 roll star to wear glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddy Holly set a precedent for future musical artists. While wearing glasses was not taboo in any way for musicians, Buddy Holly’s glasses legitimized the path for musicians to exhibit their glasses. In other words, Buddy Holly made it \u201cokay\u201d to wear them on stage while performing. Indeed, the precedent that Buddy Holly set with his glasses influenced another prominent successor of his\u2014John Lennon of The Beatles. Before Buddy Holly, John Lennon was recounted by his band members as only wearing his glasses in private, but with Buddy Holly, he also began to wear them on stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the spirit of rock n\u2019 roll is alive and well with the Buddy Holly glasses style, there was and continues to be a real physical style element that renders them a popular pick. If we take a detailed look at Buddy Holly glasses, we can see they\u2019re quite bold, heavy-rimmed, and oversized, all with a glossy black acetate. And the reason Buddy Holly could pull off those glasses was due to a combination of his softly angled hairstyle and distinctive features; the glasses complemented his facial structure rather well, and vice versa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1950s was an era of big bands; the rock n\u2019 roll bands were completely unlike the sort of alternative rock groups we have today: fashion, looks, and style was completely different. The 50s rock n\u2019 roll groups all had a distinctive, classy feel. Whether you were on the drums, played the guitar, or were the lead vocal, all the musicians wore suits with ties. The same was true of Buddy Holly and the Crickets, as they wore business suits when they started as a band. But the Everly Brothers introduced them to Ivy League clothes, the iconic look they\u2019re remembered for. In any case, this is another one of the reasons Buddy Holly was able to, in a sense, get away with wearing his Buddy Holly glasses despite being in a rock n\u2019 roll band\u2014his glasses gave a sort of \u201cfinishing touch\u201d to an already polished look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legacy of Buddy Holly’s glasses continues to live on and influences a lot of glasses styles today. Perhaps the exact make and model of the Buddy Holly glasses are not necessarily reproduced on a mass scale, but it\u2019s evident that many glasses have a twinge of the Buddy Holly glasses style to them. Take, for instance, the oversized factor and the thickness component of modern eyewear, and it\u2019s obvious the Buddy Holly glasses style is a subtle ongoing trend. What\u2019s certain is that Buddy Holly’s glasses did change the landscape in fashion and left a footprint on the significance of eyewear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enter the 1950s: an era of rock n’ roll and Buddy Holly glasses. Rock n’ roll really owes its rise during this era to incredible musical pioneers like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and of course\u2014Buddy Holly. But of these…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"semantictags":[],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cs-sightings"],"modified_by":"amy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classicspecs.com\/closerlook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classicspecs.com\/closerlook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classicspecs.com\/closerlook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classicspecs.com\/closerlook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classicspecs.com\/closerlook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.classicspecs.com\/closerlook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1197,"href":"https:\/\/www.classicspecs.com\/closerlook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/1197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classicspecs.com\/closerlook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classicspecs.com\/closerlook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classicspecs.com\/closerlook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classicspecs.com\/closerlook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"semantictags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classicspecs.com\/closerlook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/semantictags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}