Eyewear and cinema: a long love story
Cinema has always influenced fashion: accessories have often been inspired by famous masterpieces. Sunglasses in particular have been widely used to effectively identify a character, making him unforgettable. Let’s take a journey through time together, which will take you to remember the most famous eyewear models, which have become an integral part of the iconography of the character himself.
1957: Scorching Lead
The real Dandy could not fail to wear Clubmaster eyeglasses. Burt Lancaster was obviously no less in Scorching Lead, a 1957 film.
This model was then revived by other famous actors such as Oscar winner Denzel Washington, during the historic film of “Malcolm X” and Bruce Willis in the series “Moonlighting”.
1968 and 1972: The Thomas Crown Affair and The Gateway
A few years later Steve McQueen brought to the fore a model in some respects similar to that of Mastroianni, the Persol 714, shown off in two famous successful films: “The Gateway” and “The Thomas Crown Affair”. The eyewear model remained so much in the collective imagination that many years later, to remember and celebrate the artist, the Persol brand put a special edition on the market, the 714SM.
1980: The Blues Brothers
Continuing this journey through time, we arrive at 1980 and the legendary Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, who launched the fashion of the “Blues Brothers”. The couple left behind an immense wealth: the Ray-Ban Wayfarer, on the market since 1952. For the record, it would seem that this model was launched in the world of cinema, by James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause” instead of by the Blues Brothers.
1986: Top Gun
In this case we really enter the cinematic legend, probably with one of the films that most left its mark in the 80s. It was in fact the year 1986 and a young twenty-four-year-old Tom Cruise impersonated Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, lieutenant of the US Navy, the US Navy in Top Gun. The legendary teardrop Ray-Bans, Aviator model, have made teenagers around the world fall in love and fantasize.
Top Gun will not be the only cinematic appearance of the sunglasses par excellence. In 1998 they are again brought to the fore by “The Big Lebowski”, where John Goodman will wear Aviators with yellow lenses.
2000: Mission Impossible II
After leaving an indelible mark in Top Gun, the time had come for Tom Cruise to leave fans of the “Mission Impossible” saga with the memory of Oakley Romeo. In the second episode, these super technological glasses, in the film version, have the special task of illustrating to the secret agent Ethan Hunt the mission to be accomplished, and then self-destruct at the end of the vision.
Needless to say, this historic journey into the world of cinema and its long love affair with glasses could continue for a long time. A thousand other successful films have consecrated some models of eyeglasses or sunglasses with their characters, making them immortal in the collective memory.
