Glasses were not created to complete an outfit. Yet today, a single frame is enough to change its character. Between their function and their place in fashion lies a history made of images, music, and people. And part of that history passes through the streets: from those who take an accessory, wear it in their own way, and give it a new meaning.

Let’s try to follow it step by step.

At first, they were for seeing

Prescription glasses were born in Italy toward the end of the thirteenth century, probably somewhere near Pisa. We do not know the name of the inventor. We do know that in 1306, the Dominican friar Giordano da Pisa mentioned the art of making glasses in a sermon as a discovery of less than twenty years prior, and he recounted having met the man who invented them. By the beginning of the fourteenth century, they were already being produced and sold in Venice.

The first ones were two convex lenses mounted in metal or bone, to be held in front of the eyes or perched on the nose. They were a tool, nothing more.

Sunglasses arrived much later and also started from practicality: shielding the eyes from light. An important step came in 1929, when Sam Foster began selling low-cost celluloid glasses at a Woolworth store on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They were among the first to be sold directly over the counter, without going through an optician. In 1938, Life magazine described them as a novelty to be worn on city streets.

From the sky to the face

In 1936, Bausch & Lomb introduced a model with teardrop lenses and thin metal frames for American military pilots: the Aviator. The name Ray-Ban explains the purpose, which is to ban the sun’s rays. It was born as equipment, not as an accessory. The rest was done by the desire to look like those who actually wore them, and in 1986, Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise, put them back at the center of the collective imagination.

In 1952, designer Raymond Stegeman, also for Bausch & Lomb, developed the Wayfarer and patented it: plastic frames, bold lines, a character opposite to the metal of the Aviator. It was a hit in the fifties and sixties, then sales declined.

The Blues Brothers and Risky Business helped bring the Wayfarer back into the public imagination. The design remained recognizable, but the way people viewed it changed. It is a lesson that often repeats in fashion: a style does not rise in a straight line; it comes and goes.

Cinema didn’t dress everyone the same way

In 1961, in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Audrey Hepburn wore large dark glasses by Oliver Goldsmith. It was a different idea of style from that of the Aviator and the Wayfarer: no uniform, no rebellion, but a detail that alone helped define a character.

Prescription glasses have their own history of identity. The browline frame, thick at the top and thin at the bottom, is linked to the image of Malcolm X: a dark jacket, a tie, and those glasses were part of how he presented himself. The Sirmont model by American Optical is often cited. For Spike Lee’s 1992 film, according to the costume designer, Denzel Washington wanted that exact type of frame, and one almost identical to it was chosen.

Here, the eyewear does not protect from the sun and does not follow a trend. It says who you are.

When music enters the picture

In 1975, designer Cari Zalloni and entrepreneur Günter Böttcher founded Cazal in Germany, a name that combines the first letters of CAri ZALloni. Large, angular frames, often with gold details. Imports to the United States began toward the end of the seventies, and in the eighties, Cazals became a symbol of hip hop: they were worn by Run-DMC, with Darryl McDaniels and the 607 model being among the most associated, but also by LL Cool J and the Fat Boys. Spike Lee wears a pair in the film She’s Gotta Have It.

It was such a coveted object that rap even recounted its darker side: in 1985, a group from Philadelphia, the Cazal Boys, recorded a song titled "Snatchin Cazals."

It is an interesting case. A European brand, born far from the Bronx and Queens, became one of the symbols of American hip hop culture. A scene chose it, made it its own, and gave it a meaning that goes beyond the design.

And what about streetwear?

None of the models we have talked about were born as streetwear. The Aviator came from aviation, the Wayfarer from an industrial designer’s office, the Manhattan from a London brand, the Cazal from Germany.

Streetwear did not invent these models: it reinterpreted them. It mixed them with sneakers, tracksuits, chains, and garments of different origins, transforming them into a recognizable language. Run-DMC with their Adidas, gold chain, and Cazals is a good snapshot, because it holds together pieces of different origins.

This is why there isn't just one story or even just one culture to attribute it to. It includes military aviation, Hollywood, the blues, civil rights, and hip hop.

Here is where my reading comes in, not as a fact: the street is not just the place where a trend is worn. It is also the place where it changes meaning. An accessory is taken, combined, and rewritten by those who wear it.

Where I started 66eyez

I started from somewhere else, and it isn't a catwalk. It was a gentleman in my neighborhood who sold glasses on the street while I waited for my turn at the barber. Every month I came home with a new pair, and I wasn't thinking about fashion history: I was thinking about how much one detail can change an outfit.

Looking back, it seems like the same mechanism. Someone takes an object created for a function, wears it in their own way, and others start looking at it in a different way. That is where 66EYEZ was born.

And you, what was the first pair that changed an outfit for you? Write it to me in the comments.

Sources

• Early printed book contains rare evidence of medieval spectacles, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas: origin of prescription glasses in Italy.
• Eyewear is the story of one of humanity’s most ingenious inventions, italiani.it: the 1306 sermon. This source refers to the friar as Guglielmo da Pisa, while the university source calls him Giordano da Pisa; in the text, I followed the latter.
• Sunglasses, Wikipedia: Foster Grant 1929, Life 1938, Aviator 1936, Top Gun 1986.
• Ray-Ban Wayfarer, Wikipedia: Raymond Stegeman and the history of the Wayfarer.
• Cazal Eyewear, Wikipedia: founding in 1975, Run-DMC, She’s Gotta Have It, Cazal Boys 1985.
• Manhattan, Oliver Goldsmith: Audrey Hepburn’s glasses in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
• Denzel Washington as Malcolm X, BAMF Style: Malcolm X’s glasses and the costume choices for the 1992 film.