Wear your favorite film on your eyeglasses
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BUDAPEST (Reuters Life!) - Are you a fan of Woody Allen or action movies and want the world to know?
Now you can have the images from your favorite film on a pair of trendy eyeglasses made by designer Zakarias Tipton.
The 29-year-old optician first began experimenting with vinyl and plastic glass frames about eight years ago and now sells a range of Cinematique eyeware (www.vinylize.com) with clips from the silver screen worked into the frame.
"I began testing all sorts of plastic until I found my father's record collection, and then I started recycling those without his knowledge," Tipton told Reuters.
That's when Tipton, who grew up in the United States with a Hungarian mother, decided to set up his funky eyeware business.
Now he, along with his brother, are based in Budapest and their collection is sold across Europe and North America.
Their Cinematique frames are made by recycling 35mm and 16mm movies. The film is collected from cinemas and dates from after 1989 (the fall of Communism in Hungary).
"They (customers) tell us they'd like a film from Woody Allen or they want "Mission Impossible 3" in their frame or they want a picture of some famous actor, then we will make it here and ship it to them," Tipton said.
Tipton moved to Hungary at the start of this decade and is now targeting increasingly affluent eastern European customers with a list of about 300 films to choose from.
The frames are designed on a computer and a company in Italy manufactures them. The front of the frames is made by a sister company in neighboring Slovakia.
Not all films make good material though, as the images must have bold colors and lots of contrast.
Tipton said a favorite is the 2003 action movie "Once Upon a Time in Mexico", which stars Antonio Banderas as hitman El Mariachi alongside Johnny Depp as a psychotic CIA agent.
"There are explosions everywhere, contrast, people flying, jumping, which brings out an added dimension."
(Reporting by Krisztina Than, editing by Paul Casciato)
