By Victoria Garcia
After spending hours upon hours browsing through the 20/20 print and digital archives, we discovered just how much has changed within the eyewear arena over the past five decades. Our coverage of technology, new products, industry announcements and even advertisements has drastically shifted in order to keep up with the times and new innovations. But after flipping through hundreds of historical pages, there is one thing that has stayed consistent: Our trend setting take on eyewear.
Once seen more as a medical necessity to help with impaired vision, eyewear has transformed into one of the most popular fashion accessories, and 20/20 has been along on this journey every step of the way. If you open any recent issue of our magazine, you will immediately notice dedicated fashion features and still life photo shoots created by our editorial and art teams. Here is where we zone in on current and timeless designs, while forecasting what is to come in the upcoming year in terms of optical and sunwear styles. Although many of us are very familiar with these trend setting pages, there was a time in our early days when they didn’t exist.
In our September 1990 issue, we debuted our first ever photo shoot on location in Madrid, where models donned styles focused on that year’s fall fashion initiative. Our then Editor Marc Ferrara wrote in his monthly column, “Our cover this month as well as our Fall Fashion Preview will set another new standard for the industry’s coverage of the fashion eyewear market. The type of dynamic fashion presentation you see in this issue will become a regular element of 20/20’s coverage of eyewear trends over the next 12 months. In fact, our new cover and the Fashion Preview are the first in a series of editorial and design enhancements we will be bringing in the near future.” Here is where 20/20 truly began to solidify its role as the go-to style and trend setters within the eyewear industry. These photo shoots have played a vital role in showing our readers and consumers what they should be looking for when purchasing optical frames or sunwear.
Almost 34 years later, 20/20 continues to conduct our monthly product reviews where we curate the eyewear selections to photograph for our on face and still life photo shoots. Whether we are capturing these images in New York City studios, at the beach, on a ferry, in a Brooklyn diner or on a rooftop, our team brings a passion for the eyewear and story we wish to tell each issue. Along the way, we have worked with the most creative photographers, stylists, hair and makeup artists and models, who all make a difference in bringing our vision to life. Our mainstay photographer Ned Matura has been shooting our still life eyewear images for over 25 years. His beautiful imagery capturing every frame detail continues to impress us and our readers month after month.
Our fashion style features and still life photo shoots have come a long way since 1990, but they continue to set us apart in covering new trends, materials and technology innovations. There is no stopping us when it comes to creating high-fashion and inspiring editorial content that showcases the past, current and future eyewear trends. Take a look back at some highlights of our trend setting initiatives over the past 50 years, and see if you can recognize some of your favorite eyewear styles and designs ■
