Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses throughout film history.
It’s hard to think of a more iconic sunglass design than the Ray-Ban Wayfarer. The shades are a staple of the American wardrobe and have a special place in cinema history, appearing in unforgettable films such as “The Blues Brothers,” “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Risky Business.”
The sunglasses' classic design has made them a hit with the public, but their success on the silver screen is primarily due to some savvy business moves by Ray-Bans' parent company, Bausch and Lomb.
Toni’s Film Club, a channel dedicated to film history, shared the story of how Ray-Bans became so popular in films on YouTube.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
When were Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses invented?
Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses were initially released in 1952. Their cutting-edge design is attributed to injection-molded plastic, whereas previously, sunglasses were made from wireframes. The sunglasses became a hit after James Dean wore them in 1955’s “Rebel Without a Cause” and became a staple amongst the counter-culture.
In the 1960s, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Bob Dylan wore Wayfarers, cementing their place in the hipster wardrobe for years to come. However, in the ‘70s, the Wayfarers began to lose their way with the public at-large.
“By the 1970s [Wayfarers] had fallen out of style in favor of the more subtle and elegant frames and the sales had decreased so much that Ray-Ban was planning to discontinue the model. But little did they know in the summer of 1980, things were about to change,” Toni says.
In 1980, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi starred in the megahit comedy “The Blues Brothers” and wore black Wayfarers with their two-tone black-and-white outfits. The film would be a smash for the “Saturday Night Live” alumnus, and Wayfarers were back in style overnight.
Interestingly, the Blues Brothers were the antithesis of early ‘80s fashion. “Their sleek black suit and tie was a nod to earlier African American menswear and blues culture,” Bianca writes at Costume Rhapsody. “Artists like BB King, John Lee Hooker wore fedoras and suits. Many Blues artists wore impeccably tailored suits and fedoras to every gig. It was elegant Black culture, the blues, counterculture, and Chicago history.”
Why are Ray-Ban sunglasses so popular in movies?
After the success of “The Blues Brothers” in 1982, Ray-Ban signed a $50,000 deal with a company specializing in product placement. Over the following years, their sunglasses would be featured in over 60 movies and TV shows. Before “The Blues Brothers,” Ray-Ban sold 20,000 pairs of Wayfarers a year; by the time Tom Cruise donned the shades and danced in his underwear in 1983’s “Risky Business,” sales were up to 360,000 yearly.
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
Gif of baby being baptized
Woman gives toddler a bath Canva
An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.