Google is celebrating the life of Altina ‘Tina’ Schinasi, an American artist, designer and inventor most known for designing the widely popular ‘cat-eye’ eyeglass frame, with a doodle on August 4, which marks her 116th birthday. Schinasi was born on this day in 1907 in Manhattan, New York, to immigrant parents, the Google Doodle said in a blogpost. She designed the Harlequin eyeglass frame, which is known today as ‘cat-eye’ eyeglass frame. Schinasi also patented several other inventions throughout her career and produced documentaries, according to the blogpost. Schinasi’s mother was a native of Salonia (then in the Ottoman Empire) and her father was a Sephardic Jewish Turk. She studied painting in Paris after graduating high school and that sparked her appreciation for the arts. After coming back to the US, she studied art at The Art Students League in New York and took a position as a window dresser for multiple stores on Fifth Avenue. During this time, she found herself working with and learning from prominent artists she admired such as Salvador Dalí and George Grosz, the blogpost said. While working as a window display designer, she got inspired for the creation of her now-famous ‘cat-eye’ frames. At a window display of a nearby optician’s office, she noticed that the only option for women’s glasses tended to be round frames with mundane designs. This observation led Schinasi in creating a different option for women. She mimicked the shape of the Harlequin masks she saw people wearing in Venice, Italy during the Carnevale festival. She found the pointed edges flattering to the face and started by cutting paper demos of her innovative frame design. However, Schinasi’s creation was rejected by all the major manufacturers who claimed her design was too edgy. Nevertheless, she didn’t give up and luck struck when a local shop owner believed in her vision and asked for an exclusive design for six months. The Harlequin glasses quickly became a success, earning Schinasi much publicity. The Harlequin glasses became an overwhelming fashion accessory by the late 1930s and through the 1940s. She was awarded the Lord & Taylor Design Award in 1939 for her invention and was even recognised by major magazines, including Vogue and Life. Schinasi ventured into the world of films, and in 1960 she produced a documentary about the celebrated artist and her former teacher George Grosz. Titled George Grosz’ Interregnum, it was nominated for an Academy Award and won first place at the Venice Film Festival. In her later years, she wrote and published her memoir ‘The Road I Have Travelled’ (1995), volunteered as an art therapist and even invented unique portrait chairs and benches which she called Chairacters. Even today, after almost 100 years of its inception, cat-eye design continues its influence in fashion accessory trends across the world.
