Nerds are cool thanks to Colin Firth's horn-rimmed specs in A Single Man

Fashion guru Tom Ford masterminds a return for 60s specs.

A Single Man, the tale of one man’s overwhelming grief at the death of his lover in 60s America is noteworthy for so many reasons. It’s helped Brit actor Colin Firth throw off his Mr Darcy shackles (he played the Jane Austen romantic hero in a TV mini-series and the modern-day equivalent of him in the two Bridget Jones’s Diary rom-coms) and nab his first Oscar nomination. It marks the debut feature for first-time director and fashion god, Tom Ford and it’s got the most sought-after pair of eyeglasses this side of Harry Potter.

Over the years big screen star in specs have been depressingly thin on the ground. There’s the boy wizard of course and Michael Caine worked the look to perfection in the swinging 60s, but according to movie lore, glasses are usually seen on old folks, fussy academics, nerds or that ugly duckling who takes them off to magically transform into a stunning beauty (working in reverse for Superman). They’re seen (pardon the pun!) as an obstacle to attractiveness and to be ditched as soon as possible, and yet we know it’s not like that.

Stars like Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr. and Justin Timberlake have long led the way, adding some cool to face furniture, but movies are proving slow to catch on. Some argue that it’s a problem for the lighting guys with reflections ruining the takes; others claim it stands as a barrier between the actor and the audience. Us? We’re not buying it and thankfully neither is A Single Man in which Colin plays George Falconer, an immaculately dressed gay college professor (okay, it’s obeying the academic rule) who nicely works some specs appeal.

In fact, Colin has made these retro horn-rimmed glasses so cool that when famed movie critic Mark Kermode (he of the erstwhile crush on The Exorcist) got to sit down and have a full-on natter with the actor for a BBC Podcast, he didn’t kick things off with questions on the character, the Oscars or even Colin’s onscreen nudity, but the glasses. “Can we cut straight to the chase,” he cries, “and say in A Single Man where did you get those glasses and where can I get a pair as they were the coolest glasses I’ve seen.” Hear, hear Mark, they sure are something special.

And it’s not just specs wearers like Mark that have been seduced by them. The blogosphere is packed full of fans trying to learn more about the specs, whether they need corrective lenses or not and even the likes of respected broadsheets newspapers like The Times and The Telegraph have gotten in on the act, tapping into the trend for fashion eyewear. So back to Mark’s question: where did the glasses come from and how can we get them? And the answer’s not as obvious as you might have thought.

Famous fashion designer + film = the perfect platform to showcase your latest collection, yes? Well, no actually. Despite being one of the leading lights in eyewear and his love of chunky frames, Tom Ford wasn’t responsible for Colin’s specs in A Single Man. Not only did he not design them (although his latest lines coincidentally echo the look), he didn’t even push them to prominence in the pic. That was all down to Mr Firth himself.

“I found them in a props box,” he recalls of the glasses’ humble origins. "These were genuine antiques… and they just were cool and they went with the hair and the whole rest of the look. So I picked them up, put them on, said “well maybe for reading,” and he [Ford] let me wear them for a couple of scenes and he warmed to them as we went along. This was not his; almost everything else I would say was initiated by him, but not that."

Nice work Colin, though we can’t pretend we’re not disappointed to hear we can’t get hold of the onscreen originals. Instead we’ll have to make do with these spot-on lookalikes that happily aren’t too pricey or head to a David Clulow opticians to check out Tom Ford’s modern spin on the 60s staple.