Ray-Ban Wayfarers: Made in the Shade

If ever there was a brand of sunglasses that has had a love affair with the camera, it’s Ray-Ban’s boxy Wayfarers. One of the brand’s big breaks was in 1961, when Audrey Hepburn wore a pair in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It also got a boost when John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd donned Wayfarers in the 1980 movie that still inspires portly guys everywhere, The Blues Brothers. But the brand hit its apex of cool in 1983, when a young Tom Cruise put on the sunglasses as he danced around in his skivvies in Risky Business.

But Wayfarers, launched by Bausch & Lomb in 1952, were low on the buzz scale by the time the new millennium rolled around.