UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, September 20, 1993
5
Luke Watkins
Olaf Westerberg
By Chesley Dohl
Kansan staff writer
People looking for ways to express individuality need not look beyond their noses.
Those who are sick of the same old specs have turned to the eye wear industry, which now is cashing in on high-fashion glasses.
"I wanted to get a unique pair you don't see people wearing everyday," Westerberg said, looking over his oval Giorgio Armani designer frames. "And you don't see many people wearing these — that's for sure."
Olaf Westerberg, Lund, Sweden, freshman, said he had worn contacts but after having problems with them, he decided to invest in a pair of glasses he really liked.
Like many people across the country, Westerberg decided to make the switch to glasses — but not just any old pair would do.
Audrey Leban, owner of Fashion Eyeland, 600 Lawrence Ave., said
the eye wear industry was making frames that accommodate all tastes. Hundreds of different frames, ranging in size, shape and color, make glasses exciting fashion.
But choosing the right pair can be a trying experience, she said.
"I think it used to be true that people tended to hide behind their glasses," she said. "Nobody used to know or seem to care what they really looked like."
But people try on some really unusual styles, she said.
Teague Speckman, owner of Visions of Lawrence, 806 Massachusetts St., said conservative, round-wire frames were popular with KU students now.
"We have some styles that are really 'out there,' but people buy them," Speckman said. "We're selling wide and narrow, metal, stronger shapes, half-eye and frames with 20 different colors in them."
Before deciding on his bold, unusually shaped Armani glasses,
Westerberg said he spent two weeks shopping with friends in different shops in Europe.
Chris Rogers, manager of Lens Crafters in the Topeka West Ridge Mall, said glasses were one way to get noticed.
"Some people come in and try on the wildest pair they set their eyes on," Rogers said. "I guess they're sick of the same old thing, so they're going for the more exotic look."
Designer frames, such as Polo and Armani, sell from $200 to $300, Rogers said.
Shannon Buckley, Kansas City, Kan., graduate student, went to Austin, Texas, last spring with a group of friends to support local bands and ended up buying some new glasses.
Rogers said that even students who have perfect vision buy $1-$10
"I haven't seen any others like them," she said, looking through her black, retro-looking frames. "I think they're cool, and they were cheap."
generic glasses at boutiques to make a fashion statement.
"They'll decide they want to change their look for a day, maybe go more intellectual — so they'll buy some cheap frames to wear around," she said.
Luke Watkins, 24-year-old Lawrence resident, got a pair of octagon-shaped glasses for Christmas last year.
"My mom said, 'Luke, we're going to go to every place in the world until you get the pair of glasses you want,' he said. "I wasn't going to wear anything you see everyday."
Rogers said she thought people bought unusual frames because they wanted to make the investment count.
"If people are going to put a lot of money into a pair of glasses, I think they want to go all out," she said. "Why spend hundreds of dollars on a pair of glasses the guy next-door has on?"
Kansan staff writer
Lawrence, German town exchange pupils, culture
By Tract Carl
Corrina Guinthir, an eleventh-grade student from Eutin, Germany, went to her first American football game Friday when Lawrence High School played Shawnee Mission South.
"The people are more funny than the game was," she said. "Everyone was so enthusiastic."
Guinthir is one of six students from Eutin's gymnasium, Germany's high school equivalent, who arrived in Lawrence on Sept. 9. The six students are part of Lawrence's sister city program, which gives Lawrence and Eutin the chance to exchange students and information. Eutin is in northern Germany, about a half hour from the Baltic Sea.
The German students will be in Lawrence until Oct. 20. They are attending Lawrence High School and living with the families of six high school students who visited Germany this summer.
Cheri Crowther, an eleventh-grade student at Lawrence High School and Guinthir's host sister, visited Germany from May 25 to July 7. Like Guinthir, she attended the gymnasium and learned about German culture. But life in Eutin is not that different from life in Lawrence, she said.
Kristin Suedel, who is also an eleventh grader in Eutin, said the biggest difference between Lawrence and Eutin was the size. Eutin only has about 18,000 people, and Lawrence has about 65,000.
"The people were nicer and more relaxed," she said. "They all seemed to know each other."
And everything is farther apart in
Lawrence.
"It's so widespread," she said. "There are so many lawns and trees, and the streets are wider."
Steve Timoner, Chicago junior,
studied German at the gymnasium from May 22 to July 22 with 13 other KU students. The KU students spent the last two weeks of the program traveling from Berlin, along the Rhine river and then to Munich.
Timoner, who is Jewish, said his parents did not want him to go to Germany because of recent anti-Semitic occurrences. But he said he did not experience any prejudice.
"I was looking out for it," he said. "I know there is anti-Semitism, but I didn't personally see it."
Eutin has remained much the same despite changes in Eastern Europe and Germany, Timoner said.
"I don't think it was really affected, except by public opinion," he said.
Frank Baron, professor of Germanic languages and literature, said the Eutin program began as an exchange program for KU students in 1966. After a friend in Eutin made the suggestion, the program was expanded in 1989 to include the exchange of high school students and to become Lawrence's sister city, Baron said.
"One of the things that has happened as a result of the program is we have had exchanges on many different levels," Baron said.
In October, a bank employee from Eutin will visit Lawrence for two months for the experience of working at an American bank. In November, a librarian from Eutin will speak to Friends of the Library at the Sudler House, a German and American study center.