Ghostly Sunglasses
Some time ago, immediately before our family departed on our Trip Around the World, I Tweeted and Tumbled and Instagrammed a picture of my favorite glasses (a pair of Native Dash SS — no longer made) with a broken temple.
Photo: The evening before I leave to travel the world for a year, my favorite #sunglasses break. http://t.co/laxzOPcBvC
— Tom Fassbender (@fordsbasement) August 19, 2014
But there was one small problem. Those were not my favorite sunglasses.
My Favorite Sunglasses
Okay, then. If those weren’t my favorite sunglasses, what are?
These: The Curtis, from Warby Parker, in Revolver Black.
I first discovered the Curtis where I discover many things — on the internet. I can’t even remember where I first saw them, but I think it was in an email.
I’m always on the lookout for some cool, affordable sunglasses, and these specs, named in honor of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, came about as the result of a partnership between independent record label Ghostly International (which made them cool) and Internet eyeglass start-up Warby Parker (which made them affordable).
It sounded like a promising partnership, so I clicked over to check them out in detail. And when I first saw them, I thought, “Now those are some cool, affordable sunglasses.”
So I left the browser tab open and promptly forgot about the Curtis. When I remembered two days later, they had already sold out.
I felt a sense of loss, but such is the peril one faces when running too many browser tabs.
Sometimes You Just Get Lucky
Flash forward to August 2013. My family was vacationing in New York and our wanderings about the city eventually brought us to the Warby Parker store on Greene. We didn’t venture in to specifically look for a pair of Curtis sunglasses, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask about them as long as we were there. Just in case.
And sure enough, they had one last pair, in Revolver Black. I bought them without hesitation and have worn them almost every day — until August 20, 2014, when I departed on a Trip Around the World with my family.
I didn’t bring them on trip — I didn’t want to risk losing or breaking them during the course of a 333-day around-the-world journey. So I reluctantly left them behind.
Transmission
In honor of my Curtis Ghostly Sunglasses in Revolver Black sitting at home, awaiting my return, I share this: Joy Division performing Transmission in 1979 on John Peel In Session Tonight, recreated with stop-motion Playmobil figures.
Really well done. I love the John Peel figure the best.
