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beginning with the rectangular "Rondon" model, to appeal to individuals of all face shapes. For a period in the 1950s, plastic brows designed to emulate wood grains became popular, with
Victory Optical offering models that allowed wearers to fit different caps to coordinate with different clothing. Ultimately, browline glasses accounted for half of all eyeglasses sold and worn in the 1950s. Many famous people from the mid-20th century are pictured wearing browlines, including black liberationist
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glasses. At the time, most frame manufacturers offered a limited number of colors and sizes. The style became popular, and many other companies soon produced their own browline frames. Art-Craft
Optical produced the "Art-Rim" brand, which offered designs for men ("Clubman") and women ("Leading Lady"). Throughout the 1960s, six manufacturers dominated the browline market: Shuron, Art-Craft Optical, Victory Optical, American Optical, and
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flagship frame. The original stag had no metal chassis: the lenses were mounted directly to the brow caps via two sets of screws. Although the style was never popular in the United States, it became particularly fashionable in Europe and
England in the 1960s as part of Amor's Spotlite line. The modern monobrowline originated in the 1980s, as part of an effort by Bausch and Lomb to diversify their
31:
252:, introduced the Clubmaster, a traditional browline frame with sunglass lenses, and the Wayfarer Max, a Wayfarer shaped-and-sized browline. The Clubmaster went on to become the third best selling sunglasses style of the 1980s, behind the Wayfarer and aviator. Bob Geldof can also be seen wearing a pair of browline sunglasses that look to be Clubmasters in the 1982 Pink Floyd movie
39:
68:. The glasses were first manufactured by Shuron Ltd in 1947 under the "Ronsir" brand, and quickly emulated by various other manufacturers. The design became the most common style of eyeglasses throughout the 1950s and the early 1960s before it was surpassed in popularity by solid plastic styles. Browlines enjoyed a renaissance as
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connotations. The style remained unpopular through the end of 1978, except among conservatives and the elderly. Demand suddenly rose between 1978 and 1980, as the anti-disco backlash affected the until-then popular
Aviators and Teashades, which became associated with the fashion of the time. The rise
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Browline glasses were introduced in 1947 by Jack
Rohrbach, then vice-president of Shuron Ltd., an eyeglass company. The first browlines, sold under the "Ronsir" model name, had interchangeable bridges, eyewires, and "brows," allowing wearers to completely customize the size, fit, and color of their
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Browlines continued to remain popular through the 1960s, but less so as advances in plastics manufacturing offered even further frame customization via solid plastic eyeglasses, which could now be made in more shapes, sizes, and colors than in the past. Those who wished to wear plastic frames but
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Monobrowlines are a variant of browlines in which the bridge is contiguous with the caps, creating a solid, unbroken line across the top of the frame. The style dates back to the Shuron Stag, a browline prototype, which enjoyed some brief popularity before being replaced by the Ronsir as Shuron's
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By 2013, of the major companies that produced browlines during the height of their popularity, only Shuron and
Victory Optical still manufacture them. Shuron is the only company to have constantly produced browlines since their inception; Victory Optical shut down for a period in the 1980s-1990s
99:
The most common means of construction is for the upper portion of the frame (the "brows" or "caps") and temples to be made of plastic, with the remainder of the frame (the bridge and eyewires, or "chassis") to be made of metal. The chassis inserts into the brows and is held in place by way of a
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The style continued to rise in popularity throughout the 1950s, with different manufacturers modifying the original browline design. Art-Craft and
Victory Optical introduced browlines with much lighter aluminum caps instead of plastic brows. Shuron began modifying the original browline shape,
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before resuming manufacture in the 2000s. Art-Craft optical still features the
Clubman model on their webpage, although the company no longer manufactures the frame, and now only sells remaining parts from the factory. Ray-Ban still produces the Clubmaster.
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on the fashion world led to several eyeglass manufacturers offering browlines in order to meet demand for 1960s inspired frames. Major characters on several television series in the late 2000s and early 2010s were seen wearing browlines, including
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also boosted the
Wayfarer model, which like the Ronsirs were about to be phased out in the early 1980s. About 12,000 pairs were sold in 1982. Five years earlier fewer than 5,000 were purchased. However, by 1987 figures amounted for over 500,000.
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Browlines (and plastic glasses in general) were deeply affected by the backlash against the 1980s consumer culture, and carried a variety of stigmas during the 1990s, variously identifying the wearer as a
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still liked the browline style flocked to "plastic browlines," plastic glasses with transparent lower portions and solid upper portions, which became a major frame style of the 1960s.
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and
Clubmaster sunglass models. The style proved unpopular and was quickly phased out. The monobrowline design was resurrected by a variety of manufacturers in the 2010s (chiefly
218:
In 1971, Shuron sold their sixteen-millionth pair of Ronsirs. However, the general backlash against the culture and fashion of the 1950s and 1960s which had begun with the
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129:) after browlines returned to popularity. Unlike its tenure in the 1980s, monobrowlines proved to be a popular variant among eyeglass wearers in the 2010s.
104:; following the style's resurgence in the 2000s, browlines made wholly out of one type of metal with less pronounced brow portions became popular.
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During the 2000s, browlines were still seen as overtly conformist or "nerdy" and were still associated with 1950s culture and fashion.
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where the "bold" upper part holding the lenses resembles eyebrows framing the eyes. They were very popular during the
444:"Looking Back": an illustrated history of the American Ophthalmic Industry, by the Optical Laboratories Association
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series of screws. For a period in the 1960s, numerous models emerged in which the brows were constructed from
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Browline glasses are constructed with the upper portion of the frame thicker than the lower, simulating
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subculture led to a rapid decline in the popularity of browlines, which had come to carry undesirable
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wearing browline glasses, of which he owned several pairs, each in different colours
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on the upper corners of the frames, which sometimes also served to cover the
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in particular helped to cement an association between browlines and the "
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wore a pair of Shuron Ronsirs with tinted lenses on the series
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470:"Foster's Frames: The History and Mystery of D-FENS's Glasses"
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72:in the 1980s before returning to popularity in the
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418:"Coming up Around the Bend: Monobrowlines"
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159:attaching the temples to the frame.
416:Fassel, Preston (September 2014).
393:"Hindsight is 20/20: The Browline"
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316:was erroneously identified as "
329:CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
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121:a fusion of the then-popular
117:sunglass collection with the
270:, elderly, or a devotee of
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454:Art Craft Optical: History
214:3016 Clubmaster sunglasses
395:. The Optician's Handbook
503:Shuron Ltd. / Shuron.com
66:United States of America
27:Style of eyeglass frames
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169:Kentucky Fried Chicken
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492:Shuron Ltd.: About Us
323:American Horror Story
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181:1964 Civil Rights Act
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64:, especially in the
514:Marfuggi, William.
351:Horn-rimmed glasses
318:horn rimmed glasses
76:, with the rise of
516:"Victory Heritage"
356:Rimless eyeglasses
272:far-right politics
250:Aviator sunglasses
230:In the mid-1980s,
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468:Fassel, Preston.
391:Fassel, Preston.
189:JosemarĂa Escrivá
177:Lyndon B. Johnson
16:(Redirected from
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34:Browline glasses
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782:Night-vision
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762:Dark adaptor
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587:/ spectacles
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519:. Retrieved
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426:. Retrieved
422:the original
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277:Falling Down
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237:Moonlighting
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175:, president
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84:subculture.
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797:Upside down
634:Horn-rimmed
537:ray-ban.com
314:Noah Bennet
203:1970s–1990s
138:1940s–1960s
88:Description
78:retro style
865:Categories
850:VR headset
711:Sunglasses
535:Clubmaster
521:2015-03-13
475:2013-06-11
428:2014-09-12
399:2013-06-10
367:References
224:conformist
147:(with the
70:sunglasses
18:Clubmaster
818:Blindfold
757:Ballistic
691:Trifocals
661:Pince-nez
644:Lorgnette
574:Types of
246:Wayfarers
165:Malcolm X
102:aluminium
43:Malcolm X
840:Eyepatch
739:Wayfarer
724:Mirrored
681:Shooting
676:Scissors
639:Lensless
604:Browline
599:Bifocals
340:See also
255:The Wall
171:founder
123:Wayfarer
94:eyebrows
80:and the
881:Eyebrow
876:Glasses
835:Contact
828:Blinker
823:Blinder
802:Welding
792:Swedish
777:Foggles
767:Doggles
749:Goggles
734:Shutter
719:Aviator
696:Windsor
671:Rimless
666:Pinhole
656:Monocle
629:Groucho
619:Chicken
614:Cat eye
609:Bug-eye
585:glasses
576:eyewear
304:Mad Men
298:Mad Men
242:Ray-Ban
212:Ray-Ban
153:plaques
133:History
115:Ray-Ban
82:hipster
326:, and
309:Heroes
220:hippie
157:rivets
127:Oakley
811:Other
701:X-ray
686:Smart
649:Opera
594:Belay
583:(Eye)
74:2010s
62:1960s
58:1950s
787:Snow
320:"),
268:geek
264:nerd
248:and
60:and
284:".
183:),
867::
624:GI
484:^
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