History of Sunglasses Timeline

By the 19th century, railway travelers wore tinted spectacles to reduce the intense glare encountered during journeys. This helped extend darkened eyewear beyond specialized scientific and military settings.

By 1895, sunglasses were being mentioned in advertisements, including advertisements published in The Sioux City Journal. This indicates that darkened eyewear had entered commercial public awareness.

Inexpensive mass-produced sunglasses made from celluloid were first produced by Sam Foster in 1929. Their low cost helped make sunglasses accessible to a much larger consumer market.

In 1938, Life magazine described sunglasses as a new fad on city streets and a favorite affectation of thousands of American women. It reported that 20 million pairs had been sold in the United States in 1937, although only about one-quarter of wearers supposedly needed them for eye protection.

Introduced in 1952, trapezoidal lenses were wider at the top than at the bottom and were inspired by the popular Browline eyeglass shape. The style became associated with James Dean, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Bob Marley, The Beatles, and other performers.

Browlines were adapted into sunglasses form in the 1980s and rapidly became one of the most popular styles. Their popularity has risen and fallen repeatedly in the decades since.

The rise of New wave, New Romanticism, The Blues Brothers, 1950s and 1960s nostalgia, and the anti-disco backlash revived Wayfarers. A lucrative 1982 product-placement deal helped make the model the best-selling style between 1980 and 1999.

Aviators’ association with disco culture contributed to a decline in their popularity by 1980, although the design continued to be produced and worn.

The Clubmaster model was introduced in 1982. Essentially a plastic version of the Browline design, it became one of the best-known modern variants of the style.

A 1982 product-placement deal helped revive aviators, especially through their appearances in Top Gun and Cobra. The films were associated with a 40 percent rise in aviator popularity in 1986.

Product placement put Wayfarers into numerous films and television programs, including The Breakfast Club and Moonlighting, reinforcing their status as a defining popular style.

1980s nostalgia, the hipster subculture, and the television series Mad Men helped revive Wayfarers after a slump during the 1990s and 2000s. A 2000 redesign, the New Wayfarer, also contributed to their resurgence.

Aviators became popular again around 2000 as the hippie movement experienced a brief revival. Their visibility was further reinforced by the MTV program Jackass.

By 2012, Wayfarers had surpassed aviators in popularity, completing a major shift in the relative prominence of two of the most recognizable sunglass designs.

Reports later described American Civil War soldiers using “shell spectacles,” or verres de cocquille, to protect their eyes from sunlight during long marches.

Image source: American Civil War

In 1866, Walter Alden wrote about soldiers using shell spectacles to guard against sunlight. His report is among the late-19th-century references documenting practical use of darkened eyewear.

In The Optical Manual, published in 1885, British military writer T. Longmore reported that soldiers in Egypt were equipped with tinted-glass eye protectors.

Bausch & Lomb introduced the aviator design in 1936 for issue to United States military aviators. Its large lenses and distinctive teardrop shape were intended to provide broad coverage.

In 1969, sunglasses were used aboard Eagle, the Apollo 11 lunar module, during the first crewed mission to land on the Moon.

Image source: Apollo 11

Australia introduced the world’s first national standards for sunglasses in 1971, establishing an early formal framework for their safety and performance.

Australian sunglass standards were updated and expanded in 1990 as AS 1067.1-1990, Sunglasses and fashion spectacles. The standard included separate safety and performance requirements.

A 1995 study reported that expensive brands and polarizing sunglasses did not guarantee optimal UVA protection. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission likewise warned that consumers could not rely on price as an indicator of quality.

Since 2002, NASA has used frames based on the Austrian company Silhouette’s Titan Minimal Art designer model, combined with specially dark lenses developed by the company and NASA optometrist Keith Manuel.

In 2002, the earlier European standards EN 166:1995, EN 167:1995, and EN 168:1995 were republished as a revised standard under the name EN 1836:1997, incorporating two amendments.

The ANSI Z87.1-2003 standard introduced requirements for basic-impact and high-impact protection, extending formal safety guidance for protective eyewear.

In 2003, AS/NZS 1067:2003, Sunglasses and fashion spectacles, replaced the earlier Australian standard. It addressed safety and performance requirements for sunglasses and fashion spectacles.

The European standard EN 1836:2005 defined four transmittance ratings: 0 for insufficient UV protection, 2 for sufficient protection, 6 for good protection, and 7 for full protection, in which no more than 5 percent of 380-nanometer rays are transmitted.

As of 2008, Xiamen, China, was the world’s largest producer of sunglasses. Its port exported approximately 120 million pairs each year.

The first part of a three-part standards work, covering sunglasses for general use, was first published in 2013. A new edition followed in 2022.

The second part of the three-part standards work, covering filters for direct observation of the Sun, was published in 2015.

The third part of the standards work, covering sunglasses for running, cycling, and similar active lifestyles, was published in 2022. The general-use section also received a new edition that year.