How to Wear Retro Sunglasses

With a highly disputed debate about who first made the sunglasses themselves, it’s a struggle to name who specifically invented the aviator frames. However, the reason they were invented is slightly clearer. With the rise of aviation in the 1930s, a question of clarity in the skies was coming to the fore. Therefore, a new design was suggested that would provide a high degree of glare protection and limited peripheral exposure to the sun. Therefore, the aviator frame became a key staple of fighter pilots and once their jobs were done, the trend filtered down into the civilian population, allowing for the rise of the frame within popular culture.

There are several ways you can style these frames. You can opt for casual wear or a business suit, especially if they’re the traditional darker colours for suit wear. One final point is to keep it low key with your accessories. Perhaps a simple watch or an understated piece of jewellery works as not to compete with the sunglasses themselves.

We offer a huge range of options when it comes to aviators. These Ray-Ban Olympian Aviators can be worn by either sex for a bold look with a striking golden bar across the top of the frame.

These Unofficial frames provide the classic aviator look with a dramatic bold design.

Oversized frames

In our final section, we shall be looking at the classic style of oversized frames. The oversized frame can work with any style of sunglasses, from aviators to cat-eye frames and onto your more traditional styles of square and rounded sunglasses too. Therefore, this style can be seen as more of a version of many kinds of frames, and therefore have lots of different style choices you can make. Firstly, let’s examine the history of oversized frames.

There is one key moment that can be seen to have catapulted oversized sunglasses into pop culture. The Audrey Hepburn performance in Breakfast at Tiffany’s with her renowned oversized cat-eye style frames became an iconic image. This style of frames continued into the 70s as well, with celebrities like Elton John sporting oversized aviators whilst on stage, solidifying the oversized sunglasses as a key part of pop culture throughout the 60s and 70s.

Now, let’s see how you can style oversized glasses. The first thing to note is to watch what specific frame style you’re going with before starting to style the sunglasses. The same style for a pair of oversized cat-eye frames may not work so well with a pair of oversized aviator frames.

However, there are some key factors you can keep in mind when styling out oversized frames in a broader sense. Make sure your sunglasses don’t cover your eyebrows or else you experience the phenomenon of losing your face behind your pair. Make sure to check our face shape style finder to decide the style of oversized sunglasses that suit your face as well.

Oversized sunglasses of all sorts tend to draw attention towards your face for the obvious reason that the sunglasses themselves become the statement piece, so keep that in mind too. If you’re going with oversized, keep the accessories to a minimum as the sunglasses are the key to the piece, as well as keeping the style of your clothes from being oversized to not give off a messy style.

Finally, let’s take a look at some examples that we offer here at Vision Express. Firstly, we have the classic Ray-Ban Justin RB 4165’s. The solid rectangular shape gives a bold look to any style with a timeless look.

Finally, we have another iconic look from Saint Laurent with their cat-eye style Lily SL 213’s. These Hepburn-esque sunglasses show that you can go with a look that never goes out of style and evoke that pop culture moment with a pair of oversized frames.

We hope that this guide to retro sunglasses has helped you learn something about the history of some of the classic frames, as well as some potential style tips and tricks and learned from our recommendations. If you’d like to browse some more, you can see our collection of sunglasses.

How to wear retro sunglasses