Born out of necessity in 1937, Ray-Ban has been at the leading edge of developing high quality sunglasses to protect pilots from the sun’s harsh rays. Since then, Ray-Ban has been the eyewear of choice for visionaries and cultural creators everywhere to express their fearless and most authentic selves. During the 2000s Wayfarer revival, many sunglasses designs inspired by the original Wayfarers were produced by designers unaffiliated with Ray-Ban. Grey Ant’s Grant Krajecki designed a larger, cartoonish version of the glasses “so extreme that are best worn by those with a good sense of humor”. Other Wayfarer-inspired sunglasses included Oliver Peoples’ Hollis, REM Eyewear’s Converse, and various designs in Juicy Couture, Hugo Boss, Kate Spade, Marc Jacobs’s and Kaenon Polarized 2008 lines. Between July and September 2008, retailers began selling frameless Wayfarers.
As far as we’re concerned, wearing a pay of Ray-Bans should feature on every woman’s bucket list. And these ones are our faves—which says a lot, considering every pair in the brand’s catalogue has us reaching for our credit card. You could pretty much pick any pair of sunglasses from Yesglasses and still find ray ban new wayfarer great value though. Check our in-depth Yesglasses review to see why we like this store so much. But inexpensive sunglasses that also protect your eyes and look good while doing so? Which is why we’re raving about these Yesglasses Billie mirrored sunglasses—definitely the best sunglasses for the money.
You can also opt for the Craft version of the Outdoorsman which has genuine deer leather at the padded brow bar and temple tips, rather than rubber or plastic. The Wayfarer Classics can be bought polarized or unpolarized, with multiple lens tint options to pick from. Eye Boutique eye care centers are full-service Ray Ban optical providers including lens repair, lens replacement, nose pads, temple arms and more.
Ray-Ban’s contribution to cinema is well-known, but the glasses also have a deep history in rock and roll. Lou Reed, John Lennon, Bob Dylan and Buddy Holly are just a few of the many artists who’ve sported a pair of the famous frames, and it’s easy to understand the connection between Ray-Ban and rock and roll. The glasses have been a fashion icon since the Fifties, shading the eyes of pop culture juggernauts from James Dean to John F. Kennedy to Michael Jackson. Now, more than 80 years after their debut, the glasses are still as cool as ever. Ray-Ban created the first pair of aviator sunglasses for military fighter pilots in 1937. They continue to create iconic designs known for top-notch performance today.
If you have a round face, go for rectangular or square glasses, which balance the face and make it look longer and thinner. Heart-shaped faces look best in deep-lensed glasses with thin temples. Those with oval faces get the pick of the litter, since they can pretty much pull off any style.
The novels of Bret Easton Ellis often contain references to Wayfarers. Lyrics that mentioned the style of glasses included Don Henley’s 1984 song “The Boys Of Summer”, which contained the lyric “You got that hair slicked back and those Wayfarers on, baby”. Corey Hart’s music video Sunglasses at Night shows the artists wearing Wayfarers in darkness. In response to these placements, Ray-Ban’s Wayfarer expanded from two models in 1981 to about 40 models by 1989. Wisconsin Vision is an authorized Ray-Ban dealer and we negotiate lower vendor pricing from top eyewear brands so we can pass on the savings to you. Your eyelashes shouldn’t touch the frame or lens when you blink.
Add in Ray-Ban’s classic G-15 lenses and shiny gold-tone frames and you’ll look like a walking tourism ad for the sub-tropical locale you wish you were already in. An easy way to take your sunglasses to the next level seems to be to mix acetate with metal, pretty much exactly like the Round Fleck sunglasses. The round frames combine the two materials deftly and the result is dripping in style. These oversized lenses offer a similar retro profile to the Square 1971, but in a slender acetate frame and with the arms positioned slightly higher on the lenses. It wasn’t the original (that’d be the aviator), but the Wayfarer is the classic Ray-Ban.
Since being purchased by Luxottica in 1999, the line has expanded dramatically and now includes more contemporary men’s and women’s eyeglasses and a line of children’s glasses. Made in Italy, the frames are polished acetate, offering gleam and glamour. The tinted lenses add high sun protection as well as minimising eye strain and fatigue. You’ll find the brand’s logos engraved subtly along the temples. Proof, if anyone asks, of your discerning fashion tastes, but not so obvious that you’ll be accused of name-dropping.
This style might sound like it leans feminine because of its name, but it’s meant to be unisex. And if you like the fine temple arms and softly-shaped frame, you’ll have a wide range of colors and materials — nine of them on Ray-Ban’s site alone — to choose from. The Square 1971 is a part of Ray-Ban’s throwback series of products that take to styles from the archives. These television-like lenses are mounted to metal frames and recall the groovy getups of the 1970s.