Fashion History – From Walrus Sunglasses To Wraparound Shades
Summer, or winter, fall or spring, you should always have sunglasses handy if there is a sun in the sky. There are two major features to consider when it comes to choosing your sunglasses online: health and fashion.
Let’s address health very quickly. The goal of sunglasses is not to make you look cool; that is just an added benefit. The goal is to protect your eyes from being essentially burnt over time by harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun. If your sunglasses do not block pretty much all the sun’s rays, you will actually be doing more damage to your eyes than not wearing anything over your eyes at all.
But we are going to discuss fashion and style today, not details about health. What follows is a very brief history of sunglasses, including the five most popular models worn over the past 70 years. Let’s go backward in time…
Wraparound Shades
These became all the rage in the early 1990s – not that long ago. These sunglasses are the top choice for athletes, from regular teams sports to extreme sports. They stay on the face and fit comfortably and snuggly.
Oversized Sunglasses
Oversized sunglasses first became popular in the 1960′s when women purchased them to mimic the ones famously worn by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. These are not quite as large as the novelty sunglasses popularized by Elton John, but they are big and they do help block out more harmful rays than smaller models. They have recently made a comeback to kick off the 21st thanks to latter-day fashionista celebrities like Paris Hilton.
Teashade Sunglasses
Teashades, also known as John Lennon glasses, were very popular in the 1960′s, but have largely fallen out of fashion since then. Teashade sunglasses keep each eye distinct and separate, as opposed to most other models that create a “unibrow” effect over the eyes. There are rumours of a teashade comeback after recent paparazzi photos of famous actresses and musicians have been seen sporting teashade frames.
Ray-Ban Wayfarer Sunglasses
Created in 1952 Ray-Ban’s Wayfarer sunglasses replaced traditional metal frames with plastic ones, much as we have seen plastic replace other materials in everything from cars to cutlery. Originally developed for pilots, Wayfarers were quickly popularized by Hollywood stars like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. Audrey Hepburn wore them in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Tom Cruise sported them in the 1983 film Risky Business. Wayfarer is remains a popular model of sunglasses today.
Aviator Sunglasses
The Aviator design was introduced in 1936 specifically for U.S. military pilots – hence the term “aviator’ – and was made available to the public several years later. It was in 1986 that aviator sunglasses became all the rage, popularized by Tom Cruise as ace pilot Maverick in the movie Top Gun.
Walrus Sunglasses
What? Yes, early Inuit were making a sort of sunglasses even in prehistoric times. They flatten walrus ivory and fit it with narrow slits to help protect their eyes from the powerful and blinding rays of the sun accosting them simultaneously from the sky and from the reflection off the boundless fields of snow.
By the 12th century, we finally have written evidence of sunglasses…from in China. These early sunglasses where comprised of flat panes of smoky quartz and were used to protect the eyes from the sun. The 20th century is when the use of sunglasses really took off. In 1929 Sam Foster began mass-producing sunglasses for the American public and from there many companies flourished by simply making sunglasses.
You can see the wide variety of styles available even just within a single brand, such as Virage sun glasses. Note that none of these are teashades, as they all connect with the unibrow look to some degree or another above the nose.
So whether your choice of wearing sunglasses is due to fashion or simply a choice to protect your eyes from the sun, remember that sunglasses do not have to be expensive to work properly. They should however be able to protect your eyes from UV rays. A good pair of sunglasses, whether they are a designer pair or cheap knockoffs, should be able to block out 100% of harmful UV rays.
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