Pince-nez

Pince-nez (/ˈpænsneɪ/ or /ˈpɪnsneɪ/;French pronunciation: ​[pɛ̃sˈne]) is a style of glasses, popular in the 19th century, that are supported without earpieces, by pinching the bridge of the nose. The name comes from French pincer, "to pinch", and nez, "nose".

Although pince-nez were used in Europe in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, modern ones appeared in the 1840s and reached their peak popularity around 1880 to 1900.

In this category are placed frames that should not be referred to as pince-nez, but resemble them in form and function.

Pince-nez spectacles were worn by both men and women. Since they can be uncomfortable to wear for extended periods if the wrong bridge size is chosen, and also because the constant wearing of glasses was out of fashion at the time, pince-nez were often suspended from a ribbon or chain worn around the neck, tied to the buttonhole of a lapel, or attached to a special ear-mount or to a hair-pin. Women often used a special brooch-like device pinned to the clothing, which would automatically retract the line to which the glasses were attached when they were not in use.

During the earliest era of air combat in World War I, a small number of frontline German fighter pilots serving with what would become known as the Luftstreitkräfte wore hard bridge pince-nez frames for their corrective lenses, including the very first pilot to defeat an opposing aircraft (on July 1, 1915) using a synchronized machine-gun armed aircraft, Leutnant Kurt Wintgens.

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Wikipedia