Altina Schinasi : Cat Eye Glasses Frames And Design Inventor

Altina Schinasi: Stylish sunglasses on the Google homepage - Doodle for the 116th birthday of the designer

Today, August 4th, the designer Altina Schinasi would have already celebrated her 116th birthday and is being honored by Google with a very stylish doodle – in the truest sense of the word. Because the name Altina Schinasi stands for the shape of the glasses, which is very prominently visible in the Doodle and which can also be clearly recognized in modifications. We're talking about the famous harlequin look or cat-eye glasses.

Altina Schinasi

Today's Google Doodle for Altina Schinasi shows the designer's most important work, which many people - mostly women - have worn in the middle of their faces for decades. We see glasses in the form of "Harlequin Glasses", which are immediately recognized by their shape. And as if the shape wasn't enough, the Doodle also used a bright orange with black temples as a contrast.

To underline that it is mainly about the shape, a series of arrows and curved lines can be seen. But the designer herself also made it into the Doodle, even if strictly speaking only as a reflection in the lens of the sunglasses. We see Altina Schinasi in the right lens – of course also with such cat-eye glasses on her nose – and a Google logo running across both lenses.

Cat Eye Glasses Inventor Name: Altina Schinasi

A really very successful Doodle, which is donated to the US designer on this day. Her idea, which came to her by chance while decorating a shop window, was not well received by the eyewear manufacturers at the time, so she only worked with one optician's shop. But that turned out to be a stroke of luck and the shape of the glasses became a huge success. Here is the automatically translated description of the Google Doodle.

Today's Doodle celebrates the life of Altina "Tina" Schinasi, an American artist, designer and inventor best known for creating the Harlequin eyeglass frame - now known as the widely loved "cat eye" frame. Schinasi also patented several other inventions and produced documentaries throughout her career.

Schinasi was born on this day in 1907 in Manhattan, New York to immigrant parents. Her mother was from Salonika (then in the Ottoman Empire) and her father was a Sephardic Jewish Turk. After graduating from high school, Schinasi studied painting in Paris, which sparked her enthusiasm for the arts. Back in the US, she studied art at the Art Students League in New York and took a job as a window dresser for several Fifth Avenue stores. During this time she worked with and learned from prominent artists she admired, such as Salvador Dalí and George Grosz.

Schinasi's time as a window designer inspired her to create her now-famous "cat-eye" frames. Looking at the window of a nearby optician's office, she noticed that the only option for women's glasses were usually round frames with a profane design. This observation inspired Schinasi to create another option for women, mimicking the shape of the harlequin masks she saw wearing during Carnival in Venice, Italy. Finding the pointed edges flattering on her face, she began cutting out paper demonstrations of her innovative frame design.

Schinasi approached all the major manufacturers with her creation – they all rejected her on the grounds that her design was too unusual. But she didn't give up. She got lucky when a local shop owner believed in her vision and spent six months asking for an exclusive design. To her delight, the Harlequin glasses quickly became a success and brought Schansi a lot of attention. In the late 1930s and 1940s, Harlequin eyewear became an overwhelming fashion accessory for women in the United States. Schinasi received the Lord & Taylor American Design Award for her invention in 1939 and was recognized by major magazines such as Vogue and Life.

Already an established and successful artist, Schinasi also ventured into the world of film. In 1960 she produced a documentary about the famous artist and her former teacher George Grosz entitled George Grosz' Interregnum. The film was nominated for an Oscar and won first place at the Venice Film Festival.

Even in her later years, Schinasi did not slow down. She wrote and published her memoir The Road I Have Traveled (1995), volunteered as an art therapist, and even invented unique portrait chairs and benches that she called Chairacters.

Today, nearly 100 years after its inception, Altina's cat-eye design continues to influence fashion accessory trends worldwide.

Happy birthday to the woman who was a visionary in more ways than one!