Echoes of the past: The bid to convince the public to buy rimless frames

Pre-WW2 spring time 1939 is the focus for this week’s Echoes of the past. The week the May 5 issue went to press, Germany and Italy announced an alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis and the Batman cartoon character made his print debut in the May issue of Detective Comics.

Eyewear fashions may come and go, but for decades rimless frames have serviced the needs of patients who require subtlety. In his ‘Is Rimless the Solution?’ article, Neville Chappell looked at how rimless frames could be used to the patient’s benefit. ‘Unlike shell spectacles they leave untrammelled the innate features of the wearer’s face and preserve all of its natural characteristics,’ he said – using Captain Eyston and Lady Mayo as examples of the rimless craft.