Perspective: I Gotta Wear Shades

Celebrities made Ray-Ban sunglasses cool. So why is the brand touting unknowns?

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The day that someone writes the definitive manual on how to be cool, there’ll have to be a chapter devoted to sunglasses. And while every brand from Ralph Lauren to Tiffany & Co. makes shades these days, all of them should be on bent knee to Ray-Ban. Never mind that the brand started out as basic, glare-reducing sunglasses for pilots. From the day in 1945 when General Douglas MacArthur stormed the Philippines wearing his Aviators, Ray-Bans were the coolest accessory on the planet.

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