Former Essex schoolgirl and staff writer at England’s oldest women’s magazine, the Lady, Melonie Clarke is a vintage aficionado. Here she shares her love of all things retro...

I HAVE worn glasses since I was at sixth form, and unlike a number of my friends, I totally love it.

I’ve never thought of wearing contacts because for me glasses form part of my outfit.

If I’m going for a Mad Men office girl look, the vintage cat eye ones come out, for something more towards the thirties and forties, the round frames come out.

I currently own seven pairs (although I’m eyeing up a new pair so that figure may increase soon) of both new and vintage glasses.

Going down the vintage route when it comes to glasses can actually work out cheaper than buying a new frame.

I bought a pair of cat eye glasses from a vintage market for £10 and paid £30 to have them relensed at Specsavers – no one can argue that £40 is pretty good for a pair of specs!

Compare that to a new pair I bought costing over £200 and it doesn’t take a genius to work out that vintage is best.

If you don’t like the idea of old glasses, another trick I use is buying them from high street stores and having them relensed, a Sixties style pair I got from Topshop cost me just £15 and £30 again at Specsavers to have them changed to my prescription.

A website I have loved is Dead Mens Spex, www.deadmensspex.com The risk you run with having an old pair relensed is that during the process, sometimes the frames can get damaged or even break.

So buy buying a new pair in an old style you don’t run the risk of heartbreak when/if a pair breaks.