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Style for all times

In 1952, Ray Ban broke from traditional metal frames and created hard plastic frame called "The Ray-Ban Wayfarer". Designed by Raymond Stegeman, the Wayfarer design made its first appearance in 1952. Since he had procured dozens of patents for Bausch and Lomb, who is the parent company of Ray Ban, the Wayfarer designer glasses was released as Ray Ban wayfarer. Now considered a revolutionary moment in eyewear design, the Wayfarer quickly gained popularity among both the fringe and the well-heeled crossing socio-economic and cultural borders and appealing to a mass market that included debutantes and beatniks.Ironically, the original Wayfarers were intended to be marketed to men ... until women fell in love with the sleek, shiny design that seemed to flatter any shape of face. Soon the sunglasses began to turn up on everyone from Presidents and fashionable women to folk musicians and East Village Hipsters. Wayfarers were got a PR boost in when Audrey Hepburn's Holly Golightly practically lived in her Wayfarers in the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany's. Throughout the 50s and 60s, Ray Ban Wayfarers were the sunglass of choice for everyone from Bob Dylan, to Andy Warhol, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Roy Orbison, John Lennon and countless average American teenagers who just wanted to look cool on the beach. In the mid-70s, Ray-Ban introduced a line of "disco" inspired sunglasses in the mid-seventies, but it fell flat. However, a resurgence in popularity was just around the corner. In 1982, Ray-Ban appeared to be on the cusp of a revival. Their sunglasses made a not-so-subtle appearance on John Belushi and Dan Akroyd in the The Blues Brothers movie. Despite wearing Ray Bans for nearly all of the movie (Belushi actually only removes them once when Carrie Fisher has a rocket launcher aimed at him), sales were still a paltry 18,000 pairs in 1980. Ray-Ban received their first big return thanks to Tom Cruise donning the classic Wayfarer in the 1983 coming-of-age movie Risky Business. Suddenly, Ray-Bans were cool again and the company could hardly keep its Wayfarers in stock. In 1983, the company sold an amazing 360,000 pairs of the sunglasses. In the coming years, Ray-Bans would appear in a series of 80s hits, including Miami Vice, Moonlighting, and The Breakfast Club. Sales reached 1.5 million. In the Eighties, Ray-Bans and Ray-Ban Wayfarers could be seen on everyone from Madonna to Michael Jackson, Elvis Costello, Morrissey, The Ramones, Blondie's Debbie Harry, members of U2, and other celebrities like Jack Nicholson and Vogue-Editor (and "The Devil Wears Prada" muse) Anna Wintour.Ray-Ban was back with a vengence. In 2007, Ray-Ban re-introduced the original Ray-Ban Wayfarer design, but expanded the color options beyond the traditional palette to include patterns like checks and camouflage and colors like navy, white, turquoise, red, and blue. They also created a line of multi-colored Wayfarer frames that combined colors like gold on black, white on black and red on tortoise-shell. The strategy worked, and once again, Ray-Ban and Ray-Ban Wayfarers seemed to stare you in the face every time you opened a fashion magazine or a copy of People. While their efforts brought a clearly retro-flair to 2009 eyewear, the real thing that was started back in 1937 and epitomizes the classic sunglass style persists.

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Ray-Ban Wayfarer sungless history of 50 years old Ray-Ban Wayfarer sungless reputation 50 years old.
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