Google Doodle celebrates Altina Schinasi
A trained sculptor, Schinasi designed the glasses in the late 1930s while working as a window display designer.
(JTA) – Last week, the Google Doodle featured a cartoon image of a bespectacled woman peering out from one of the lenses of orange cat-eye glasses. The Doodle celebrated the 116th birthday of Altina “Tina” Schinasi, the Sephardic Jewish artist and inventor who devised the distinctive eyeglasses.
A trained sculptor, Schinasi designed the glasses in the late 1930s while working as a window display designer. Many major manufacturers rejected her designs, inspired by the Italian Harlequin mask, because they were too edgy. She pushed forward and partnered with a boutique optical shop called Lugene on Madison Avenue, where one of the first pairs was sold to writer Clare Boothe Luce. Schinasi’s designs took off and she soon established her own eyewear company.
The “Harlequin”-style glasses, more popularly known as “cat-eye,” became a hallmark of glamour in the late 1930s and were a dominant silhouette through the mid-20th century, worn by the likes of Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.
In a note from Google, the company wrote, “Happy birthday to the woman who was a visionary in more ways than one!”
Google also thanked Schinasi’s son Terry Sanders for his contributions to the project.
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