Ray-Ban sunglasses are not only one of the most well known luxurious and fashionable brand of sunglasses out there, but they are also iconic. Ray-Ban sunglasses are known for two of their most popular style, the Aviator and The Wayfarer.
The Aviator is characterized by dark, reflective lenses, often two or three times the size of the normal eye area. Originally, the design featured G-20 tempered glass lenses, transporting only 20% of light using natural grey gradients; named so because the tear dropped shaped mimicked the goggles that were designed for pilots. The popularity of this style arose when celebrities such as Michael Jackson began wearing them in the late 1980’s to early 1990’s and were soon featured in films such as Top Gun sported by Tom Cruise and Cobra sported by Sylvester Stallone. The large lenses are usually concave instead of flat and are typically made to cover the entire area of the eye in order to block out as much sunlight as possible. This is an iconic style as well because of photographs of the late General Douglas MacArthur sporting the Ray-Ban sunglasses during World War II as he stepped upon the shores of the Philippines. The aviator style is one of the most copied designs and remains popular to this day.
On the other hand wayfarers were designed in 1952 by Raymond Stegeman of Bausch and Lomb, Ray-Ban’s parent company. Sporting a radical a new shape, inspired by the Cadillac’s tail fins, hinting un danger and instability but then upon further inspection giving off a sturdy masculine look. The creation of the Wayfarers brought about the creation of sunglasses using plastic frames a opposed to metal frames. While remaining a popular fad from the 1950’s to the 1960’s The wayfarer’s saw their decline in the 1970’s only to be brought back alive by the film The Blues Brothers in 1981 where some 18,000 pairs were sold, the style however, was on the brink of discontinuation. In 1982, the Wayfarer’s fate changed due to a lucrative deal that Ray-Ban Sunglasses had struck up with the Unique Product Placement Company in Burbank California to feature Ray-Ban Sunglasses in Television shows and movies. Ray-Ban’s Wayfarers appeared in over 60 movies and television shows between the yeas 1987-1987 thus seeing a rise in its popularity once again.
Today, Ray-bans wayfarer and Aviator style of sunglasses still remain two of the most classic and popular design of sunglasses out in the market.