In case you haven’t noticed, not every month’s issue honors a Frame of the Month. It was decided early on that placing such honorable status on any frame just couldn’t be defined by something as practical as a 30-day timing issue. In order to take on legendary status, the given frame needs to literally drill a deep crevice in one’s memory bank, thriving and growing in stature by virtue of… VIRTUE.

And need we remind all that this isn’t specifically about price or style or color or gender, or anything so provincial as a voting process, wherein a bunch of editors gather around a table to tally votes based on some formula having to do with snobbery, populism, advertising or goodie bags.

Nope. None of that comes into play. This is about hand-to-eye coordination: A frame comes in as requested for a photo shoot… Our grubby editor hands dart out to grab the best of a bunch up for consideration… and… our eyes tear up with joy, admiration, lust and ulterior motives as one particular style from one random vendor knocks us for a loop.

This month it was quite rightly a clubman/clubmaster (or better yet, call it a Brow style as outlined in our terrific “The Brows are Back in Town” feature from new(20/20)comer Preston Fassel) from Barton Perreira named the Karlheinz. The details here speak volumes as regards the look of the zyl, the temper of the engraving on the metal brow, the “combination” of slight/sturdy inherent to a clubman style with its delicate marriage of metal to celluloid, adding both strength and finesse to any and all faces out there waiting and hoping and longing for a frame as classic as it is modern. Why not any other takes on this particular iconic eyewear look? Because… 20/20 says so. That’s all part of being Frame of the Month. We’re not looking for agreement or argument or augmenting on our take right here. We’re just looking for an instance of EYEmortality, and this frame is THAT.

— James J. Spina