Without any rimmel or blush, the fashion historian Valerie Steele restores in her Encyclopedia the context in which the Wayfarer was born: “In the 1950s, to boost sales, sunglasses manufacturers started releasing new models every year, taking an example from the automotive industry. ”
Produced in series by Ray-Ban from 1952, this quickly replaced beach accessory survives the summer and migrates to the city, where jazz musicians and dandy beats know suns that also shine at night. To strike a pose and shelter themselves from the flashes, fashionable artists quickly take over, forming a single community of stars hidden behind the same model of glasses.
Many of them are nearsighted. It is anecdotal, perhaps, but from Buddy Holly to Roy Orbison, from Jean-Luc Godard to James Dean or Bob Dylan, the Wayfarer style better than any other conceals their confusion with the objectives. With JFK, in 1962, the Wayfarer legend was written.
Kitsch or have you seen me
If this model was initially considered as a boy’s glasses, we note, however, that in the 1950s, Simone Signoret or Marilyn Monroe contributed to its fame. Impossible, too, to miss Audrey Hepburn who, in Diamonds on Sofa, wear a pair of sunglasses oversize who are not but who look like they are.
If the 1970s deemed it old-fashioned, with The Blues Brothers, the 1980s put it back in the spotlight. After her rock period, boosted by the business of product placement, she joined the “wins”, which took hold. It is then found on the nose of Tom Cruise in Risky Business, in Tea Breakfast Club, without forgetting of course his unforgettable role in Two cops in Miami. At the top of the Top 50, Madonna and Michael Jackson add their names to the list.
Again kitsch or have you seen me, it is then found in the Tarantino cinema, in True Romance by Tony Scott, as, in 2000, in American Psycho by Mary Harron. Cramée, the Wayfarer returns all the same around 2007, more carefree and light than ever, girly, available in all colors.
The surprise effect faded, Philippe Maneuver having completed his jury duty, today we find the original as a source of inspiration, from luxury houses to mass-market brands. Knowing how to count, fashion could not leave one of the greatest popular successes for the sole benefit of its creators.
