Why Do So Many Women Wear Giant Eyeglasses?

Why do so many women start wearing oversize reading glasses with big, bold frames when they reach a certain age? Suddenly, so many people I know seem to be channeling Mr. Magoo. Is this just a trend or something more significant? — Sam, New York

It’s not a trend, and it’s not actually Mr. Magoo you should be thinking of, but Edna Mode from “The Incredibles.” She’s the fashion reference here.

Not to mention Carrie Donovan, the fashion editor at The New York Times who was immortalized in Old Navy ads of the 1990s, and Jenna Lyons, the former J. Crew designer and now Real Housewife of New York — highly influential wearers of giant glasses with big frames all, and evidence that this, well, eye-catching style is not exactly a new … spectacle.

As to why the style is so popular, that has something to do with looks (get it?!), of course, but it also has a lot to do with self-image and the way we interface with the world at different stages in life.

As Ms. Lyons pointed out when I asked her why she had adopted this particular accessory at a time when we start becoming style sentient — which is to say, high school — and glasses are not considered cool. Indeed, they are considered the opposite. So most teens opt instead for contacts. It is only later, when issues like convenience and professional stereotypes come into play, that glasses often begin to emerge.

That this is often around the same time, give or take a few years, that people start needing reading glasses is something of a coincidence, but taken together the two phenomena probably explain why it seems to you that there is an age-related explosion in big glasses.