I’m currently in the market for new glasses as my current ones are few years old and are starting to show wear and tear, so I did what everyone does these days and I headed to the web for inspiration. It was there that I started to see many fantastic vintage print ads for women’s eyeglasses from 1940s & 1950s and they were so wonderful that I just had to share them for today’s post.

Disclosure: Some of the links on my blog from Etsy , eBay, are Affiliate Links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Vintage Eyewear Advertising

From the 1940’s & 1950’s

1943-The Original Cat Eye Glasses. No need to look owlish, bookish, or just plain dull anymore!

1940s Vintage Ad: 1940s eyeglasses advertising for cateye glasses 1943 Harlequins

Source: Flickr

1947 Vintage Victory Eyewear-Golden Honey Frame.

1940s Vintage Ad for victory vintage 1947 eyeglasses. The Ad featuring 1940s fashion as well.

Source: Pinterest

1955 women’s Harlequin eyewear discussing how you can try on the glasses in the comfort of your own home (what a novel idea!).

1950s Vintage Ad: 1955 women's Harlequin eyewear discussing how you can try on the glasses in the comfort of your own home

Source: eBay

1956 better vision institute milady’s eyes vintage eyeglasses ad. Love the arms on these glasses.

1950s Vintage Ad: 1956 better Vision Institute milady's eyes vintage eyeglasses ad

Source: eBay

“How to look glamorous in glasses”-1959

1950s vintage advertising-how to look glamorous in eyeglasses

Source: Pinterest

Glamour Glasses-1954. Designed as fashion accessories rather than functional. Indeed Glamorous!

1950s Eyeglasses Advertising for 1950s womens eyewear - Glamor Glasses. 1950s Fashion.

Source: Pinterest

As many of us know, music influences fashion and Be-Bop was no different.

Bebop is a style of jazz that developed in the 1940s and is characterized by improvisation, fast tempos, rhythmic unpredictability, and harmonic complexity (source).

1950s eyeglasses Be-Bop Glasses. 1950s Fashion ad featuring Black Women Models.

Source: Beboplashes

1959 FLAIRSPECS women’s Continental design angel cateye eyeglasses frames ad.

Source: eBay

1959 Eyeglass styles- Miss Exec comes back better than ever.

1950s vintage eyewear advertising womens eyeglasses - 1959 mens and women's glasses

“Match the colour of your eyewear with the costume of your choice”. They are a single frame with interchangable jewel-like tops that are available in ten fashion approved colours. OMG YES! I love this idea!

1950s eyeglasses womens advertising.1950s glasses / 1950s cateye glasses featuring different frame colors you can change out.

Source: Pinterest

Schiaparelli-1950s. Match your eyewear to the Season, in this ad it’s the Christmas season. I’m in!

1950s Eyeglasses advertising vintage christmas ad for Schiaparelli eyewear

Source: Flickr

Frame your eyes in High Fashion. Wear them to the Theatre and Cocktails and wear them to glamorize business.

1950s vintage ad for women's cat eye glasses in different colours and designs.

Source: Pinterest

These glasses suit this model so well! The 1950s hair, the pearls, the red lips…stunning ad.

1950s vintage advertising for cat eye glasses for women. The ad features women's 1950s hairstyle.

After putting together this post, I realized that in the 1950s companies who sold eyeglasses, were on a big push to make them exactly like the 1943 ad above stated…”less bookish”. Wear glasses and you will be just as glamorous as your non eyeglass wearing friends. I think this is why the designs were pretty decorative as well, to match the marketing message that was being put out there.

In today’s world though, eyewear is a fashion statement and people are wearing them even if they don’t need them (lucky them!). So the advertising can really take any turn that a company wants (all depends on who their target is).

In the market for some vintage eyewear yourself? Check out websites like Etsy for what your looking for (Note: If they are no longer avail just do a quick search. Etsy is updated with 1000’s of new products daily).

Women’s 1960s Cat Eye glasses in black, made in France by Selecta Optical (avail as of May 3rd, 2023 HERE).

Source: Etsy

Vintage 1950s Aluminum Rose Gold Cat Eye Glasses.

Source: Etsy

Woman’s 1950s / 1960s beautifully etched cat eye eyeglasses frame.

Source: Etsy

Vintage 1940s Woman Clubmaster Cat Eyes Eyeglasses – Black and Gold.

Source: Etsy

1950s vintage eyeglasses-beautiful pair of ladies Zylite eyeglasses frame with beautiful decorative brows and temples.

Source: Etsy

Here is a photo of yours truly in my newest pair of vintage style glasses from CLEARLY.

1940s vintage hairstyle with vintage style glasses.

QUESTION TIME: Do you wear glasses? If so, would you wear the styles pictured above? Share in the comment below.

FURTHER READING:

‘Women who wear Eyeglasses” – fantastic real life photos of ladies in spectacles.
Vintage Advertising 1920s-1960s (Archived blog posts)

Liz

This past weekend I was in Lake George, New York for a really fun Tiki Weekend called ‘Ohana on the Lake‘ and the hubby and I stayed down the street at a vintage motel called the ‘Windsor”. The sign alone was worth the 7 min walk to the event each day.

Windsor Motel Lake George NY Mid Century Modern Sign

This recent motel stay inspired me to look into old vintage motel/ hotel ads of the Mid-Century (1950s & 1960s) to share with all of you. So let’s take a peek at what I found shall we?

Vintage Motel / Hotel Advertising

1950s & 1960s

First up! Do you know where the name “MOTEL” came from? It was coined by the owner of the Milestone Mo-Tel (an abbreviation of “motor hotel”) in San Luis Obispo, California.

Motel Inn in San Luis Obispo, the world's first 'mo-tel'

In 1983 the Motel Inn’s Rose DuBois holds a postcard of the original structure.

Cool huh!? Okay back to the blog post…..

Disclosure: Some of the links on my blog from Etsy , eBay are Affiliate Links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

1950s Oasis Motel Miami Beach Florida travel vacation brochure. Fantastic Mid Century design of the building!

1950s vintage hotel advertisement: 1950s Oasis Motel Miami Beach Florida FL Travel Vacation Brochure

Source: eBay

Holiday Inn of Palm Springs. Gosh one of the things I love about 1950s, 1960s advertising is the colours, the fonts and the design. So fun!

Vintage Matchbook: Holiday Inn of Palm Springs. 1950s ad / 1960s ad.

Source: Flickr

Match Book advertising for the Las Flores Inn in Santa Maria, California.

Source: Flickr

Mid Century Ad for the Palm Springs Hotel. “Sun, Swim, Fun.”

1950s / 1960s vintage hotel advertisement for the Palm Springs Hotel-Dining & Cocktails. The Matchbook or ad features an illustration of a couple swimming.

Source: Tumblr

Look at the colours in this 1960s advertising brochure for the Flamingo Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. So fun!! I love this hotel and have stayed there many times over my years in Vegas.

(Note: to see the images bigger, click on them to be taken to the original website).

Vintage 1960's ad for The Fabulous Flamingo Hotel & Casino Las Vegas Advertising Brochure

Source: PicClick

The Manger TOWNE and COUNTRY Motor Lodge-1950s. From the Golden Era of the motor lodge, located just 2.5 miles south of Savanah on Route 4.

(Note: avail for purchase on Etsy at time of posting)

1950s motel lodge promotional flyer - Savanah Georgia Manger Towne and Country Lodge 1950s Architecture

Source: Etsy

1950s AVIS Rent A Car vintage advertisement. While not exactly a direct advertisement for the Hilton & Statler Hotels, it still shows off the beauty of one of their hotels ‘The Beverly Hilton’.