This year marks the 75th Anniversary of Ray-Ban, the brand of shades that have experienced incredible ubiquity over the past decade with the revival of iconic styles like the Wayfarer and Clubmaster.
Another classic Ray-Ban style the Aviator has been an eyewear staple of many great stars of the past and have inspired a new era of fans, like The Gossip singer Beth Ditto, who grew up with female aviation pioneers like Amelia Earhart and Jean Pearson as her heroes.
Ditto says, “Amelia [Earhart] is the best known of a band of ground-breaking aviatrix that soared through the skies in the 1930s, one of a handful of women who achieved fame and fortune for their prowess.”
Ditto credits those female pioneers with injecting the aviation world with the emphasis on style that stands today. She says, “Hollywood was keen to capitalise on the thrill, romance and danger of taking to the skies, and coveted aviatrix roles went to glamorous stars of the day such as Katherine Hepburn, Myrna Loy and Kay Francis.”
“Ray-Ban Aviators were trailblazers; from their inception there was a vision, an understanding that practicality and beauty can be happy bedfellows.”
Throughout Ray-Ban’s 75 years of undertaking this balancing act, some of history’s coolest cats have picked it as their shades-purveyor of choice. Here’s a small selection…
Aviation pioneer Jean Pearson
James Dean
Bob Dylan
Jack Nicholson with Sean Penn
Andy Warhol
Madonna with New York producer Jellybean Benitez
Debbie Harry
1960s Astronauts for NASA!
Blur
Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine
All images provided by Ray-Ban
