I thought, rather than the normal “look back at the life of” article, I’d reel off a few, maybe, rather unusual facts about the life of the great man. It seems the only way show how much Sir Jimmy, commonly mocked for his catch phrases and dress sense, actually gave to the world of radio, tv and charity……….so deep breath and here goes.

He was born in 1926 and was the youngest of 7 children.

He was a semi professional wrestler but lost all of his 35 bouts (apparently no one wanted to lose to a long haired DJ)

He presented his first tv programme in 1960 and although shown in black and white, he dyed his hair a different colour every week.

He was the first presenter of Top of The Pops on New Years Day 1964 (he also hosted the last ever episode in 2006)

Although always seen with a cigar, it was really a prop, as he never actually lit or smoked them.

He was a member of Mensa

He was chieftain of the Lochaber Highland Games

He was given an honourary commando green beret by The Royal Marines in the 70′s for completing their 30 mile speed march (one of only 2 civilians to do so).

He was a Knight of Malta and a fellow of The Royal College of Radiologists.

He raised more than £40 million for charity.

He died just two days short of his 85th birthday.

Jimmy's Choice

……….what more can we say! Respect the memory with our JL260F and some blue tinted lenses (shell suit and jewellery not included)

X factor finalist and Glasses Direct’s favourite diva, Johnny Robinson was unexpectedly voted out at this week’s show alongside boy-band; The Risk. Loveable eccentric, Johnny channelled a sartorial silhouette over the weekend whilst smashing classic ballad; Unchained Melody, opting for slim line suits and a MOD style barnet.  Leaving his more flamboyant attire in the dressing room, Robinson teamed his low key look with some acetate red specs from east London label, London Retro. The unisex frame fitted the singer’s neat features perfectly.

It maybe the end of the road as far as The X Factor is concerned, but a new journey may well be in the pipeline for Johnny, with next year’s Eurovision Song Contest well within his reach.  However, the 45-year old could have a fight on his hands in the form of reformed 90s sugar-pop band Steps tipped to throw the gauntlet down for the opportunity to represent England in Azerbaijan next year.

Personally we’d rather see Johnny rocking the Euro-mic come May 2012, than the likes of H from Steps. Watch this space for the unlikely song bird to make his mark. How? No idea. We’re waiting with baited breath, too.

An article in The Guardian this week has focused on the G20 summit currently taking place in Nice this week and among the items on the agenda has been the much publicised Robin Hood Tax. This is in no small part thanks to the presence of actor Bill Nighy ( him of the cool, geeky glasses…….and Love Actually fame) who has got behind the tax reform with the same gusto he normally reserves for the big screen.

Right on, Bill.

In essence, it is asking for a tiny tax to be implemented on the world financial sectors, thus creating hundreds of billions of dollars which could then be used to improve public services world wide and at the same time help reduce poverty and debt throughout the countries of the world. The UK alone would generate £20 billion in extra cash.

Shop The Nighy Look:

Bench BCH180

With Nighy being joined by other famous names like Nicholas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, Bill Gates and even The Archbishop of Canterbury the Robin Hood tax is growing in recognition by the day and currently has web support at 97,398 people. Not bad for an idea that has only been in the public eye for 19 months.

And the reason for Bill Nighy getting behind the cause?……”I blame Richard Curtis…..everyone else does”. Get’s our vote!

As ever, we here at Glasses Direct are always keeping our musical ears to the ground for interesting music and videos and this artiste recently slipped onto our radar, mainly due to his cool video which seems to have been shot in a rather swanky Parisienne opticians.

The guy’s name is Oscar O’Mailey and the song is called ” Ques an Charde”. The video was produced by Manuall Focus (another clever link) and although neither name is, as yet, that well known, we expect big things if this tune is anything to go by.

Check the vid out here and let us know what you think!

'Need a little help reading the small-print?'

Being nice to his mum, a model citizen and “that nice chap next door” are 3 phrases not commonly associated with Adolf Hitler. In fact, they’re about as well used as chopsticks at an all you can eat soup buffet.  The other sight you don’t get to see very often is Hitler wearing specs and as The Daily Mail reported this week, there’s a very good reason for it.

According to recent stories, Hitler needed reading glasses but being the chap he was, deemed them as a sign of weakness in front of his supporters, so he never wore them. Now most of us when we hit a certain age, will be told we need specs to read. So we bite the bullet, log on to the Glasses Direct site and buy a pair. What we don’t do is toodle off and invade Poland.

Presbyopia or the loss of accommodation in the eye ( or, the need for longer arms) is something we all encounter at some point as we pass the great, big 4…0 but we just chalk it up to experience and carry on. Hitler choice to ignore it completely and simply had a type writer made with extra large print and had his top PR bods and spin doctors (now that’s a tough gig) double space all his speech notes so he could read better.

So his rather classy specs, probably the most under used in history, find themselves up for sale for the princely sum of £5000 (you don’t even get a second pair free) along with a few other of his personal effects. If you have the cash, then casually dropping into conversation “you haven’t by any chance seen my glasses have you? You know the ones, gold? rimless? swastika on the side?” might impress some but I’d prefer the 2 for 1 for £59 with us. Cheaper and a bit less controversial when flying abroad.

As befits a man like Steve Jobs, I thought I would write Glasses Direct’s own little homage to the man who changed all our technological lives. The papers and internet have been inundated with countless articles about the iGenius since his sad passing, talking about his impact on the modern world and the way in which his vision for the future have come to shape our own. I can not even remember a time without an iPod, iPhone or Mac…..can you?

The Late Steve Jobs

From his early days working as a technician at Atari, Jobs was always a visionary. The start of things with the Mackintosh personal computer lead to the iMac G3. Then came the IOS software which would revolutionize portable gaming. Then came the iPod, iPod touch, iPhone and of course the iPad. Combine this with the introduction of iTunes and the brilliant idea to turn computers into works of art with the stunning Mac computers, and you have a whole family of products that not only combine form and function so perfectly, they actually simplify the way in which we work and play, resulting in Apple being totally unique. The ease of use and the ability to sync to your other devices made all these products unbelievably friendly (bearing in mind none of these products ever came with instructions) and that is, of course, why they sell like they do.

If there was any more proof needed of his genius, we also have Jobs to thank for bringing us films Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Up. Jobs bought The Graphics Group, which was then part of LucasFilm in 1986, changed it’s name to Pixar and shifted the company focus to making animation and like they say, the rest is history. He later sold the company back to Disney for the not too shabby a sum of $7.4 billion.

So the world mourns, not only for a great man but a great inventor, a great leader and a great visionary. His trade mark jeans, black roll neck and round glasses made him look like a slightly tired college professor but underneath all that was so much more. Bill Gates called him a genius, comparing his impact on the world to that of Einstein. By my reckoning, that’s probably not too far off the mark.

So, as the Glasses Direct team look back on the man that bought so much to modern day living, quietly making a worldwide impact on how society functions we’re making like the late and great Jobs and keeping out specs subtle, round and rimless. Quietly functional and fabulous: RIP Mr Apple, thanks for taking a bite out of society and leaving a lasting impression.

London Retro gals, Carole and Sarah

The other week myself and buyer Carole, paid a visit to our friends at Easy Living Magazine in answer their so far, rather fruitless search for high quality frames that also owned some seriously god-darn-hot style credientials.

*cough, cough-a-hem,a-hem*

Yeah, so that’s where we came in. Us and London Retro that is. We tottered along to their Conde Nast offices in Old Bond St, where they’re nestled conveniently between Alexander McQueen and Dolce & Gabbanna (step AWAY from the pretty lights and dresses, Carole!) to show them the London Retro collection and talk about getting the balance of practicle-meets-pretty, spot on.

Being the stylish gals that they are, the fashion and beauty teams soon set to work on parading the frames about the office for that vital ‘secon opinion’ and LOVED our trial service too.  Read the Easy Living Magazine write up by their Beauty and Health Director, Catherine Turner below:

Nerd Chic Specs

Easy Living Ladies in London Retro

You’re no-one unless you have a pair of thick framed vintage-looking specs at the moment – the bigger the better. It started with the fash pack and celebs wearing RayBans and Persols. Now the majority of the Easy Living team (that’s us above) are wearing them and we suggest you get yours asap before the trend changes. We all know what a minefield choosing a pair of glassesthat suit can be, plus it’s a fine line between nerd chic and plain old nerd. That’s why the entire office mobbed Carol and Sarah, the ladies from online glasses Londonretro.com (photographed together above) when they visited us the other day. We all got the chance to try on their latest collection – a concise edit of perfectly formed and exclusively designed nerd chic frames to suit all tastes and face shapes. Rule of thumb, those with heart shaped faces suit smaller, rounded shapes, or 50s winged ones if your style is more retro. Most of the rest of us suit the classic bookish looks, and, surprisingly, the larger, bordering on Michael Caine specs look really feminine on those willing to carry them off. Think colour too – the London Retro collection features muted hues of gun metal, caramel and wine more flattering to paler skins and more delicate features as well as classic black. Biggest bonus is, shopping online for glasses means you get to try on at home and really see how you look and feel in them with no salespeople breathing down your neck. For £5 (redeemable on your purchase) you can choose 3 styles to be sent to you to try on at your leisure. The returns sticker makes it easy to send the ones you don’t want back – no hassle. Best of all these cool frames are £99 each. Hurrah high fashion and practical do meet!

Old Hollywood romance is something that’s about as extinct as our visits to the gym, so when we read about the auctioning off of Tinseltown legend, James Dean’s love letters to his then girlfriend Barbara Glenn, there was a collective steaming over of lenses and wistful sighs (from the girls, anyway). With only 4 films under his belt before his tragic death in 1954, James Dean is still talked about and hailed as a Hollywood great. To this day, men want to be him and women, be with him. The figure of James Dean is one with undeniable sex appeal and of course, specs appeal.

For a man who managed to immortalise the white tee and leather jacket combo into a timeless trend, it’s a ‘go figure’ that his hotness also smouldered in a pair of reading glasses. Just check him out in this archive snap that we’ve dug up. Looking sartorially handsome, albeit a bit brow-beaten Dean is pictured with Bond girl and beau Ursula Andress (we’d give our right eye to know what she was saying) at the Thalian Ball on August 29 1955 at Ciro’s nightclub in Los Angeles. This era-capturing snap encompasses Dean’s style and how the tragically yet iconic actor gained and has continued to retain a global following. Teaming a classic tux with tortoiseshell reading glasses, the actor opted for a soft wayfarer outline to compliment his chiselled features and fair, but brooding looks. We’re sure that you’ll agree that ‘dapper’ just isn’t the word, so gents, may we suggest that it’s time to invest in some tortoiseshell specs and make like a movie star. Just see those ladies swoon in your office!

…  and  you never know, you might even snare your own Ursuala.

Get the James Dean Look with Mai Tai:

At Glasses Direct, we’ve always believed that those behind glass are those with a timeless style. For instance, worldwide renowned designer Yves Saint Laurent may have been short sighted wearing glasses from an early age, but was a visionary within the fashion world and today his designs influence some of the most coveted designers out there. From the get go, the press painted him as this vulnerable style genius, an image arguably emphasized by his glasses. The thickness of the framework was a stark contrast to his slight frame creating an air of creative intellect.

Get the look with Mai Tai:

60s icon, Warhol was heavily identified with his glasses; from the harsh dark shapes, to the clear perspex rectangular ones of the 70s. An anti-fashion look, which ultimately resulted in a fashion movement, the art-school geek look was the accidental man of the moment.
With an overload of pretty, cookie cutter celebs now at an over-spill, the power than glasses have to cut through the style chaff has increased by ten-fold.

Take after Warhol with Benetton BE133:

Boyish and gorgeous, Alexa Chung’s off beat wardrobe contrasts against the diamante clad glamour of today’s pin-ups with her specs playing a key part in achieving her stellar star status on both sides of the pond.

Steal Alexa’s style with Lucky Brand Cliff:

For an unexpected twist on the usual hip-hop mogul’s wardrobe, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Tinie Tempah have swapped their anti-pap shades for quirky specs, tapping into the preppy trend with an individual, urban edge.

Try Mai Tai in black for a quirky, preppy style:

Two naturally ‘spectacled’ heroes from the pre-millennium corner are The Smiths front man Morrissey (NHS specs with quiff in the 80s) and in the 90s, Jarvis Cocker (dorky frames, skinny hips, Michael Jackson insults).

Get a bit of Jarvis style with Harold:

This season, we’re predicting a surge of celebrities making a spectacle of themselves (see what we did there?), and we’re not talking about falling out of a cab, sans knickers a la Lohan either. With taste makers such as Justin Timberlake and Chloe Sevigny leaving the contact lenses at home, we’re going to be keeping a beady eye on the London Fashion Week shows this week to see who sends their models down the runway with some all seeing specs on.

As someone (just) old enough to remember when Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy first hit the small screen way back in 1979, it is no surprise that we now find it transferred to the big screen 32 years later. The original boasted a strong cast, lead by Sir Alec Guinness in the lead role playing George Smiley, a right hand man to the head of British Intelligence Spymaster Control (now played by John Hurt). This new, updated version has Gary Oldman cast in the role and with probably the finest ensemble cast to hit cinemas this year, the film not only remains faithful to the BBC original and therefore the book but uniquely also stands up as a film in it’s own right.

The film is basically a spy thriller but what a thriller it is, cleverly playing out the pieces as George Smiley, fired (along with his boss) after a botched covert operation in London in the 1970′s is asked back by the Whitehall powers that be to investigate evidence of a Russian mole within the hallowed walls of MI6. His role? To spy on our spies as he tries to uncover the identity of the Russian spy!

The supporting cast of John Hurt, Colin Firth, Kathy Burke, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch are more than up to the task of matching Gary Oldman on screen and indeed Benedict Cumberbatch’s character (Smiley’s sidekick Peter Guillam), seems to have the most fun on screen of all the protaganists. However, the film belongs to Gary Oldman. Daunting enough to be following in Sir Alec’s footsteps, Gary carries the film not just with his thoughtful portrayal of a somewhat put upon government stooge but in the way he carries himself and of course in the way he looks.

The 1970′s is captured perfectly with the dour suits, beige macs and black briefcases but most importantly in George Smiley’s eye wear. Remember these were the days when spectacles were a purely functional item and with the choice opticians offered sometimes limited to “would you like those in brown or black”, it was an era populated with the classic NHS eyewear.

Thankfully, the big, square, plastic look has come full circle and having virtually disappeared for the last 20 years, it has made a return to our faces with a modern twist. With designers recreating this look now has never been a better time to buy into the “George” look. Try to match the sharp, modern suit and overcoat with frames such as London Retro Shoreditch:

Ashton:

and Mai Tai:

The Fabris Lane Thomas:

and Lucky Brand Cliff:

add a slightly modern take on it and if you’re feeling very brave then the Harold is one for the true Spy!

So take a look and get the 2 for 1 offer to truly blend in (as only a true spy can). I know MI6 would approve.