(Photo: Marcellus Hall)

Q: I love my vintage cat-eye eyeglasses, but they’re just too fragile for everyday wear. Can someone reproduce the frames for me?

A: Set your sights on Disrespectacles (117 West Broadway; 212-608-8892; and 82 Christopher Street; 212-741-9550), and in two months you’ll be seeing double—glasses, that is. For $285 and up, owner Tim Fabozzi, in business since 1982, will make a mold of any plastic frames and match them right down to the temples and hinges, and can do the same with metal frames. The store stocks more than 1,000 original parts for styles from the nineteenth century to the present—which means that it can provide you with an exact replacement for, say, that missing temple.

If antique frames don’t sit quite right on your modern head, Fabozzi can alter the bridge size, lens shape, or colors, or just offer advice to put the focus back on your face. “A lot of people wear what they’ve stuck to for years,” he says. “We try to guide them.” If the original pair is less than perfect, Disrespectacles will clean them up by buffing, polishing, and repairing (up to $45). Is it time to start spearheading that one-man pince-nez revival?

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Related:

• Archive: “Ask New York”
• Articles by Aaron Rasmussen
• Table of Contents: Nov 24, 2003 issue of New York | Subscribe!