Article content Jean jacket, sunglasses, baseball cap. Which is the coolest? You can only choose one. Sunglasses, right? Yeah, nothing says cool like shades.
Say you’re setting up a scene in a movie. How do you identify that the character’s got game? Sunglasses. Shades add instant swagger to a role.
The Terminator, The Big Lebowski, Men in Black, Thelma and Louise, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Matrix, and just about anything with Tom Cruise — Risky Business, Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick — sunglasses have a pivotal role. In fact, Ray-Bans probably should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a batch of Cruise movies. Sunglasses aren’t a terribly new innovation.
People have been striving to manage sunlight for centuries. The reflection off of water or snow has been a particular issue. The Inuit created slitted goggles from bone or horn in order to stave off photokeratitis — snow blindness.
They weren’t really sunglasses, per se, but worked by restricting the amount of sunlight that could enter the eye. The first optical devices to specifically manage sunlight are said to have been made in 12th-century China using small sheets of smoky quartz set into frames. Venetians, with the constant presence of water, had a particular need for glare management.
In the 18th century, the glassmakers of Murano devised a mirrored lens that shielded the eye from the blinding reflection off the canals. The resulting device was called “vetri da gondola” or gondola glass.
