History of Sunglasses

Let's take a look at sunglasses from first use to modern developments by Oakley, Smith, Varnette, Maui Jims, and Arnette.

From Italy to Oakley

Smoke tinting was the first means of darkening eyeglasses, and the technology was developed in China prior to 1430. These darkened lenses were not vision-corrected, nor were they initially intended to reduce solar glare. They served another purpose.

Sunglasses and the Law

For centuries, Chinese judges had routinely worn smoke-colored quartz lenses to conceal their eye expressions in court. A judge's evaluation of evidence as credible or mendacious was to remain secret until a trial's conclusion. Smoke-tinted lenses came to serve also as sunglasses, but that was never their primary function. And around 1430, when vision-correcting eyeglasses were introduced into China from Italy, they too, were darkened, though mainly for judicial use.

Sunglasses and the Military

The popularity of sunglasses is really a twentieth-century phenomenon. And in America, the military, which played a role in the development of sunscreens, also was at the forefront of sunglass technology. In the 1930's, the Army Air Corps commissioned the optical firm of Bausch & Lomb to produce a highly effective spectacle that would protect pilots from the dangers of high-altitude glare. Company physicists and opticians perfected a special dark-green tint that absorbed light in the yellow band of the spectrum. They also designed a slightly drooping frame perimeter to maximally shield an aviator's eyes, which repeatedly glanced down-ward toward a plane's instrument panel. Fliers were issued the glasses at no charge, and the public soon was able to purchase the model that banned the sun's rays as Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses. Today, Oakley sunglasses are highly sought after due to the recent war with Iraq. Constant media coverage of troops in the field reveals marine and army use of Oakley sunglasses, goggles and boots.

Sunglasses Became Cool

What helped make sunglasses chic was a clever 1960's advertising campaign by the comb and glass firm of Foster Grant. Bent on increasing its share of the sunglass market, the company decided to emphasize glamour. It introduced the "Sunglasses of the Stars" campaign, featuring faces of such Hollywood celebrities as Peter Sellers, Ekle Sommer, and Anita Ekverg. Magazine advertisements and television commercials teased: "Isn't that... behind those Foster Grants? Soon any star in sunglasses, whatever the actual brand, was assumed to be wearing Foster Grants.

Well-known fashion designers, as well as Hollywood stars, escalated the sunglass craze in the '70s with their brand-name lines. A giant industry developed where only a few decades earlier none existed. As women since ancient times had hidden seductively behind an expanded fan or a dipped parasol, modern women--and men--discovered an allure in wearing sunglasses, irrespective of solar glare.