How glasses got sexy

Carrie Mundane, designer, Cassette Playa

I've got three pairs of glasses. Vintage Cazals, which I put prescription lenses in, and another vintage pair with big plastic purple frames, really cartoonish, from Arckiv in Camden. I don't really like new glasses. Glasses are having a fashion moment now; maybe people are realising it's OK to be a nerd. Giles Deacon wears glasses well; Keith Haring and Janet Street-Porter too. And Jarvis Cocker, who reminds me of when I was a kid and wore massive NHS glasses Photograph: PR

KS, rapper, Young Fathers

I wear Armani specs as my day-to-day reading glasses. Black Alan Carr-ish ones. But my going-out, looking-fresh glasses are my Cazals. I got tired of bog-standard glasses and decided to go for something more outrageous to wear out. I love Cazals, they remind me of old school hip-hop. Jam Master Jay of Run DMC always looked good in glasses. Before you wouldn't have seen people rocking glasses in the way they do now. On our trips to London, I've seen people wearing frames without the lenses in. I went to this club recently, and saw someone wearing those construction glasses. I thought oh my goodness man, glasses are making a comeback! Photograph: Matt Brown/Black Sugar/PR

Alys Sara Hale, model and singer

I wear an old pair of frames in tortoiseshell. I chose them because of the shape and their ability to obscure most of my face. They project my more geeky unfashionable side. For castings, I ditch my glasses, as clients want to see my face. But I wear big glasses on stage to hide my nerves - until they start steaming up! Like all other clothes or accessories they make a statement, but one more linked to intellect and androgyny rather than fashion or money. People tend to advise that you don't go above your eyebrow or below your cheekbone, but I think the only thing you can do wrong is choose a pair that are dull. Contacts are for practicality, glasses are an excuse for face furniture Photograph: PR/PR

Dev Hynes, Lightspeed Champion, singer/songwriter

I got these glasses cheap at a store called Fabulous Fanny's, the first week I moved to New York. I was actually hell-bent on getting contacts because I've worn glasses my whole life and was sick of people asking, "Are those prescription?" But a friend said I should check out this store before I made the leap into contacts. I wanted a pair of glasses - and I'm not ashamed to say this - that looked like I worked in an office in 1976 Photograph: PR company handout

Caryn Franklin, fashion writer/broadcaster

I've got quite a long face so I like quite an obvious horizontal shape and a strong frame. I tend to buy plastic glasses. I've got a pair by Booth & Bruce, who are English designers. Some Gucci, of course. Prada, Alain Mikli and Ralph Lauren. I've got a couple of pairs from some of them. I'm wearing about four different pairs at the moment. They are the same shape but have different tones on the frames, different coloured lenses. It just depends what I'm wearing and what I want to channel. Glasses are like facial confectionery - a delicious thing to put on. It's a chance to dress up in a sea of mass-market uniform. Glasses give you edge Photograph: Rex Features/Rex Features

Dolce & Gabbana

The uber-glam design duo went for a catwalk specs-spectacular this season. Stefano Gabbana says: 'Constantly we see people wearing glasses even when they don't need them. They add elegance.' Photograph: PR

Andy Warhol was heavily identified with his glasses, from the harsh black angular shapes he wore in the 60s to the clear perspex rectangular ones of the 70s. The look was slightly anti-fashion, with an art-school geek twist; the graphic shapes and plastic frames of his specs tapped into his Pop Art aesthetic Photograph: Corbis

David Hockney has made glasses a signature look throughout his career. In the 60s, he balanced a rebellious mop of bleached yellow hair with a pair of solid, round-rimmed frames. He evolved this look into messier, dirty blond hair worn with tortoiseshell glasses. Hockney's glasses have become the key item that changes in a wardrobe that rarely strays from a recipe of cardies and slacks; a brilliant, vaguely eccentric British look Photograph: Getty