Vintage Mid-century Vogue Ray-Ban ‘Wayfarer’ Style Sunglasses

The seductive model and actress, Marilyn Monroe, preferred wearing Ray-Ban “Wayfarer” sunglasses during the 1950s and ’60s. These favored sunglasses featured green-tinted, hard plastic lenses, rounded out bottoms, structured tops, and trapezoidal frames- which style flattered her heart-shaped face and gave her the iconic image we remember today.
Ray-Ban Wayfarers-were and are-the favored sunglasses worn by many celebrities. JFK, Audrey Hepburn, Blondie, and none other then bad boy, James Dean,  who wore them in the movie “Rebel Without a Cause.” When the ’70s Disco Era hit, the Wayfarer style had fizzled out, but made a resurgence again, twenty years later.
The 1981 box office hit movie, “Top Gun” starring Tom Cruise, as a young Navy fighter pilot: Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. He wore Wayfarer’s in the movie.
Today, Ray-Ban admirer’s include: Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Ann Hathaway, Jud Law and Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg,  just to name a few.
On eBay, a vintage pair can they sell for over $300, found in excellent condition.

I have found vintage sunglasses- of all sorts-in boxes at auctions. Unfortunately, most vintage eyeglasses and sunglasses are tossed into dumpsters when family members do a clean-out on an elderly relatives home.

With this blog, I’m hoping to educate the public on how particular vintage items most consider trash-can be instead-quite collectible to others. Basically, to stop throwing away pieces of our past. Once these items are sent to the landfills-they are gone forever.

Remember: Fashion is what you buy- Style is what you do with it.