Sunglasses Glossary
Aviator
Aviator sunglasses feature oversize teardrop-shaped lenses and a thin metal frame. The design was introduced in 1936 by Bausch & Lomb for issue to U.S. military aviators. As a fashion statement, aviator sunglasses are often made in mirrored, colored, and wrap-around styles In addition to pilots, Aviator-style sunglasses gained popularity with young people in the late 1960s and continue to be popular, with only a brief fall in demand during the 1990s.
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Wayfarer
The is a plastic-framed design for sunglasses originally produced by the Ray-Ban company. Introduced in 1952, the trapezoidal lenses are wider at the top than the bottom and were famously worn by James Dean, Roy Orbison and other actors and singers. The original frames were black; frames in many different colors were later introduced. There is always a silver piece on the corners as well Wayfarer
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Clubmaster
In the 1980s, Bruce Willis wore a pair of Shuron Ronsirs with tinted lenses on the series Moonlighting, leading to a surge in demand for browline sunglasses. In response, Ray-Ban, which already dominated the sunglasses market with their Wayfarers and Aviator sunglasses, introduced the Clubmaster, a traditional browline frame with sunglass lenses, and the Clubmaster Max, a Wayfarer shaped-and-sized browline. The Clubmaster went on to become the third best selling sunglasses style of the 80s, behind the Wayfarer and aviator. Bob Geldof can also be seen wearing a pair of browline sunglasses that look to be Clubmasters in the 1982 Pink Floyd movie The Wall.
Steampunk / Teashades
"Teashades" (sometimes also called "John Lennon glasses", "Round Metal", or, occasionally, "Granny Glasses") were a type of psychedelic art wire-rim sunglasses that were often worn, usually for purely aesthetic reasons, by members of the 1960s counterculture. Pop icons such as Mick Jagger, Roger Daltrey, John Lennon, Jerry Garcia, Boy George, Liam Gallagher, Charlie Bronson, and Ozzy Osbourne, all wore teashades. The original teashade design was made up of medium-sized, perfectly round lenses, supported by pads on the bridge of the nose and a thin wire frame. When teashades became popular in the late 1960s, they were often elaborated: Lenses were elaborately colored, mirrored, and produced in excessively large sizes, and with the wire earpieces exaggerated.
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Clip On / Flip Up
Clip-on glasses are a form of tinted glasses that can be clipped on to eyeglasses for protection from the Sun UV400 Medical experts advise the public on the importance of wearing sunglasses to protect the eyes from UV; for adequate protection, experts recommend sunglasses that reflect or filter out 99-100% of UVA and UVB light, with wavelengths up to 400 nm. Sunglasses which meet this requirement are often labeled as "UV400." This is slightly more protection than the widely used standard of the European Union (see below), which requires that 95% of the radiation up to only 380 nm must be reflected or filtered out. Sunglasses are not sufficient to protect the eyes against permanent harm from looking directly at the Sun, even during a solar eclipse. Polarised Polarised lenses normally have a fixed tint, and can reduce reflected glare more than non-polarised lenses of the same density, particularly on wet roads.
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Wrap Around
Wrap-arounds (sometimes also called "Yoko Ono glasses") are a style of sunglasses characterized by being strongly curved, to wrap around the face. They may have a single curved semi-circular lens that covers both eyes and much of the same area of the face covered by protective goggles, usually with a minimal plastic frame and single piece of plastic serving as a nosepiece. Glasses described as wraparound may alternatively have two lenses, but again with a strongly curved frame.
Mirrored / Reflective