Oh hell no, you are not going to wear that! If you are going to wear that, I will never go downtown with you again!
He is eleven years old, on the edge of puberty and the future of optics. She is a mother of just forty, humorous and in possession of glasses that would not look out of place in the 1980s. With her prescription of -9.50 she was in desperate need of something beautiful and trendless. That’s what I thought, and I am an optician who finds the concept of trend rancid.
The almost adolescent is in the “trend is life” phase, as long as it does not deviate too much from what mothers have been wearing since birth (after all, it’s your mother, and too hip…. Your mother!). Rectangular, plastic with the mark half worn on the spring. %^&-Ban that is what remained after the last 11 years in which she saw her trendy hipster grow up with an infallible sense of what hip and happening reaelly is. And in his eyes that is all but what “mom” is wearing now.
She has been wearing a Yellows Plus since this week. A frame without a fancy logo, no trimmings, no hip line, no hip color, but the most important thing is, absolutely trendless!
Trends brings the concept of trend hopping, because a trend with a shelf life of more than a year is rare. You are always drawn into trends, drawn to keep on going. Perhaps that is also the reason why I find trends so rancid. It is more perishable than an open carton of milk that has been outside the refrigerator for three weeks. Today you bought your frame according to the latest trend, tomorrow Instagram has downgraded your hip frame to the sales box at Target. Why should frames be designed according to the latest trends, why? Why go along with what is determined for you by social media content wizzkids.
The great thing about being an optician with self-knowledge is that you can decide what you want. Do you want to be tempted to join the world of pre-chewed trends. Are you going for nude colors because instagram finds #nude totally trendy? Or are you brave enough to ignore instagram, and your version of nude means neon pink, which you’ll rock like never before.
Trendless is not synonymous with timeless, trendless is not classic. For me, trendless means stubborn, brave, power! Lenny Kravitz in a leather playsuit. Trendless is doing your own thing, being convinced that what you do is the only way. Trendless is your own non-copying and unique trend.
I explained it fervently to the almost adolescent kid. He stood staring at me with glassy eyes, mouth half-open. I remained silent waiting for his response. After 10 very uncomfortable seconds, he said, “Who is Lenny Kravitz”?
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”Ferdinand Faber” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”17″]Optician, lover of life, beard wearer since 2013, father, and pleasantly ticked.[/perfectpullquote]
