Wholesale Sunglasses And The Allure Of The Hidden

the early days of the Great Depression, the glasses became something of an immediate fad and photos of huge stars like Greta Garbo wearing them certainly didn’t harm their allure. After 1936, the development of the first polarized sunglasses, using technology created by Edward Land of Polaroid Film, reduced glare and eyestrain and added an important practical benefit to wearing sunglasses.

Sunglasses remained popular for the next few decades but, as with so many American products, it took Europeans to remind us of our best work. Sunglasses figured prominently in the European “new wave” hits of the late fifties and early sixties, most especially in the films of the great Italian director Federico Fellini. When he put designer shades on international superstars stars like Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg, sunglasses achieved an almost metaphysical level of import.

Perhaps inspired by the use of sunglasses in then-trendy European films, Madison Avenue launched the “Who’s behind those Foster Grants?” campaign. Cannily using stars who had plenty of glamour but relatively low price tags, the Foster Grant “mad men” employed character actor Anthony Quinn; curvy superstar-to-be Raquel Welch; and two comedy legends in the making: Woody Allen and a pre-Inspector Clouseau Peter Sellers. The campaign was an enormous, years-long success and only further solidified the association between glamour and sunglasses.

Meanwhile musicians used sunglasses for reasons as varied as blindness, to hide the blood shot eyes caused by late nights and various forms of indulgence, or just because musical talent and good looks don’t always go together. It actually didn’t matter why Ray Charles, Roy Orbison, or the Beatles wore

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