Not only has this been one of the hottest summers on record around here, it's been one of the blindingly brightest too! Good thing I stumbled upon this completely unopened counter display of vintage kid sunglasses (that would never in a million years fit my bulbous 'ol adult head!) Did I even buy it? No. But I do love that cool lettering and the happy children illustration seems unintentionally hilarious to me in a way those pie-eyed novelty gag glasses were supposed to make white people look offensively oriental or whatever. Made in Hong Kong too, so oooops... annnnd, nobody ever doodled a price on the card either so these are clearly old store stock, and never even used.
4 comments:
Maybe its me, but I don't view the youngsters as looking Oriental, or maybe the manufacturer just went with what he thought was good enough for overseas markets.
While these are probably from the 1960's-1970's, the styles can still be found in drug stores, dollar stores and Five Below.
I never stopped to consider the art that went into the packaging of items like these. Unlike AI art of today, a human being had to sit down, draw and color the image, have it printed on card stock and have it used as part of the packaging. While this art will never hang on The Louvre, it enhances the product for sale with some above average artwork. It is a nice time capsule from a different time.
I was just saying the bizarre image kind of reminded me of those gag glasses that are supposed to make your eyes look more “Asian”:
https://www.besbrands.shop/?path=page/ggitem&ggpid=644511
Yeah that is a really bizarre choice. They are sunglasses; they look cooler on you if they are dark, that's the whole point ... but these do look like comedy gag glasses.
I mean, they are cheap novelty gifts nobody is going to spend a lot of time sending art back but ... still ... at least it's eye-catching (not intentional pun) which I guess is good to draw in buyers.
It really is freaky looking!
It's true that the artist put a lot of extra effort into painting eyes that would have work better blacked-out. But I'm delighted! It makes the kids look really nerdy--the very opposite of the "cool shades" vibe ubiquitous in my childhood. I'm trying to imagine what it would look like if Patrick Nagel had painted sunglasses like this. Actually... now I want to go and deface a lot of cool movie posters and album covers with stickers that will reveal the desaturated tanless poindexter peepers under the manly cool veneers of the Terminator, the Lost Boys, Tom Cruise, etc.
I mean, all these dudes have bikini lines on their faces!
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