Hip New Image Fuels Sales Of Eyeglasses More People Own Several Pair

To go incognito as a mild-mannered reporter, Superman hid behind thick eyeglasses. Today’s TV Superman, actor Dean Cain, continues the disguise, only he wears glasses designed by Calvin Klein. The result? Some people beg opticians, “Make me look like Clark Kent.”

Glasses, once an unwanted badge of bad vision or nerdiness - or both - are now as trendy as a pierced nose or a shaved head.

With the fashion industry joining forces with opticians as aging baby boomers’ eyesight deteriorates, glasses have become “a very cool fashion accessory,” says Marge Axelrad, editorial director of 20/20 and Vision Monday, two industry trade journals. “The stigma of wearing glasses and being nerdy is completely gone.”

Mix in technical advances in making frames and lenses, and the industry is confident it can convince many people that they should own multiple pairs of glasses - a pair for sports, perhaps another for casual weekends and maybe a third for a power lunch or a big date.

Indeed, glasses have become so de rigeur that even people who can see perfectly are wearing them.

Why would a 25-year-old with 20/20 vision spend $200 on designer eyeglasses? Because, on the job, they make a young adult appear “mature and professional,” says local optometrist James A. Luccio.

The industry hopes more people will follow the lead of Candy Okuno, a computer engineering manager who owns several pairs of glasses.

For her daughter’s recent birthday party, the Northborough resident wore a pair with frames that matched her sweater. For lounging about the house, she might wear tortoise shell. And for special occasions, she wears a Cazal frame with oval lenses.

“I wear glasses every day so it’s more like an accessory,” she says. “With one or two pairs, you don’t get versatility.”

Adopted en masse, such thinking should stimulate eyewear sales, which have recently been growing at an annual rate of about 5 to 6 percent. Continuing that trend, the Jobson Optical Group, which publishes 20/20 and Vision Monday, projects U.S. retail sales for eyeglasses, sunglasses and contact lenses will reach $14.6 billion for 1996.

Eyeglasses have come into vogue just as baby boomers are starting to turn 50, an age at which many people either begin wearing glasses for the first time or need stronger prescriptions.

Indeed, the eyeglass industry hopes to enjoy the best of two worlds. Glasses may be a fashion accessory, but most consumers still regard them as a medical necessity, says Robin Gilman, co-owner of Optical View, a Framingham store that specializes in unique frames. “This is an expense people can justify,” she says.

The blending of fashion and function can be seen in the marriage of Luccio and Alina Orjales-Luccio.

When they wed in 1979, the two had separate careers. He was an optometrist; she was a retail fashion consultant. But over the years, the once-distinct disciplines converged. The couple owns several Pearle Vision Center franchises in the Boston area, and last summer opened one near Boston’s City Hall that’s dedicated to the latest eyewear fashions.

“We see it as an eyewear boutique,” Orjales-Luccio says.

In the late 1990s, the pride of the eyewear boutique may be glasses made with tinted metal frames and small oval lenses.

Ten years ago, the technology did not exist to mass-produce such glasses. Now they grace the mugs of young and old alike.

Mark A. Krauss, a student at Berklee College of Music, says his decision to go with an oval design was as much about practicality as fashion.

Krauss’ eyesight requires a strong prescription. As a kid, he wore glasses with large lenses that thickened noticeably at the edges, and the big lenses needed the support of a sturdy plastic frame. Simply put, function restricted Krauss in the styles of glasses he chose.

But thanks to technical advances, Krauss can now wear glasses with small thin lenses held in place by a lightweight frame.

Likewise, Alison Dick recently retired the eyeglasses with the big round lenses that got her through law school.

“I’m not a slave to fashion,” says Dick, an attorney with a downtown insurance firm. “But I have a small face, and the small frames fit my features much better.”

According to his fans, Giorgio Armani may be as important to eyewear as Michael Jordan is to sneakers. While fashion designers have long dabbled in the eyeglass field, Armani had a breakthrough in the late 1980s when he began creating frames for an Italian eyewear company called Luxottica Group SpA, says Steve Hollander, a marketing vice president for Luxottica.

For the sheer sake of being different, Armani exploited advances in the shaping and coloring of metal as he fashioned designs that could accommodate smaller lenses.

Armani glasses were a fashion smash, Hollander claims. At first, they had round lenses. Later oval replaced round.

Armani isn’t the only designer to branch out into eyewear. Calvin Klein, in fact, is about to launch a second line.

“We’re trying to build lifestyles for our customers, a complete look with shoes, jeans, fragrances and now eyewear,” says Robert Triefus, a vice president at Calvin Klein.

If there’s one thing designers excel at, it’s drumming up publicity to promote a trend, a skill not evident in your typical optometrist.

Luxottica is one of several companies that review movie scripts to suggest eyewear styles to help an actor look the part. Michael Douglas and Tom Cruise are just two of the stars who have helped set trends by wearing glasses on the silver screen.

What’s the next trend? Hollander thinks “geometric shapes” will someday eclipse the oval lenses now popular.

At Marchon Eyewear, Berg thinks plastic frames could someday make a comeback. It’s just like men’s suits, he says. One year wide lapels are in, the next year they’re out. It will be the same with eyewear.

Fashion, of course, runs in cycles, and eyeglasses could once again be relegated to the exclusive province of the near-sighted and the nerds.

For the moment, the eyewear marketers seem unconcerned.

Just as Imelda Marcos once owned shoes for all seasons, many in the industry think people will soon be snapping up full “wardrobes of statement eyewear.”

“You wouldn’t own one pair of shoes, would you?” Hollander asks. “And what makes a bigger impression - your face or your feet?”