The Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses have been around since 1952 and seem to have been worn by just about every Hollywood star and celebrity around. The advertisements of the time referred to the Wayfarer sunglasses as hinting at “unstable dangerousness”. No wonder the likes of Tom Cruise, Don Johnson and Jack Nicholson have worn these enduring sunglasses in person and in their TV shows and movies.
Although they were first manufactured in the 1950’s, by the 1970’s they were no longer popular. However in the last number of years they seem to have made a come back. It wasn’t until 1982 that Ray-Ban made a deal with a product placement agency in California to include their sunglasses in movies and TV shows. This was a result of them gaining some attention as the Wayfarer sunglasses were worn by the Blues Brothers in the movie of the same name. As a result they ended up being worn in over sixty movies and TV shows between 1982 and 1987.
Who can forget Tom Cruise in Risky Business! As a result of this one movie over 360,000 pairs of Wayfarer sunglasses were sold in 1983 alone. By 1986, with these sunglasses showing up in such shows as Miami Vice, Moonlighting and the Breakfast Club, sales of Wayfarer sunglasses had climbed to 1.5 million! These iconic sunglasses even ended up in a Don Henley song and Corey Hart did a music video called “Sunglasses at Night”.
They lost their popularity in the 1990’s with the introduction of new wraparound frames and it wasn’t until 2001 that they got a major redesign. The new Wayfarer sunglasses had a smaller, less angular shape and injected plastic was used for the lenses.
They again became popular when TV star Mary-Kate Olsen began wearing the 1952 version. It turned out that eBay started selling the vintage Wayfarer sunglasses and as they were selling well, Ray-Ban decided to reintroduce the original design. Today you can not only buy the original design you can also get the new wayfarer as well as a folding style.
As a result of the new popularity, Ray-Ban began a major advertising campaign and as a result they started seeing a climb in their sales. They responded to the public’s demand for Wayfarer sunglasses by also offering them in a variety of colors and as well a frameless version became available in 2008.
There are many more celebrities who have worn these sunglasses including John F. Kennedy, Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams, Andy Warhol, Roy Orbison, Jessica Alba and David Beckham.