50 Shades

If you thought I was going to do a post with 50 sunglasses in it, you're wrong – that'd take forever! Or if you thinking I'm in any way interested that book, you're mistaken.This is a book review, a short one, for 50 Shadesby Lauren Goldstein Crowe.

A super tome it is too; said number of sunglasses on the likes of (top-to-bottom) Jack Nicholson, Audrey Hepburn, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, Robert Redford, John Lennon and other massive stars. Each great photograph is accompanied by a quote, sometimes glasses related, from the shades-wearer. It's a book led by its amazing photography, capturing the stars perfectly, but the selection of sunglasses features prominently, even if the frames are mainly unidentified. Those that are attributed to their designers are Ray-Ban, Oliver Goldsmith and Persol. A few others I believe I know include Neostyle on Elvis Presley, Francois Pinton on Jackie Kennedy Onassis, but I can't be entirely sure.

My favourite sunglasses featured in the book are worn by Carole Lombard, not sure who they're by; and perhaps the best quote is, "With my sunglasses on I'm Jack Nicholson. Without them I'm fat and 60."

Hover over images for photo credits, or see below. 50 Shades is available direct from Reel Art Press. More good glasses books here.

Photo credits – Audrey Hepburn: Keystone/Getty Images / Bob Dylan: Jan Persson/Redferns / Diana Ross: Larry Ellis/Express/Getty Images / Jack Nicholson: Giribaldi/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images / John Lennon: Robert Whitaker/Getty Images.

Eyewear: A Visual History - another optical opus reviewed

You wait all year for an eyewear book and then two come along at once. New York eyewear designer Moss Lipow's Eyewear: A Visual History, at 360 pages, is a bigger book than Cult Eyewear, reviewed here last month. It's a very different hardback, but equally compelling.

Eyewear is for flicking through. Each page is marvellously illustrated with carefully photographed life-size frames, most of which come from Lipow's own collection. As well as this array of stills, he has sourced amazing pictures such as this one above (1956) from old magazines, catalogues, advertising and films.

Lipow begins in the first chapter - pre-1900 - at the very beginnings of glasses, charting the history of the early optical devices. There are lorgnettes, optical fans, scissor spectacles, pince-nez and monocles, but it's the second chapter on 1900-1945 in which you really begin to appreciate the extent of his glasses collection.

I was intrigued by the story linking sunglasses and billiard balls, and the detail provided around some early cat's eye designs and driving glasses is enlightening. Eyewear is providing Eye Wear Glasses with some much need early eyewear education! Brands to be found in this chapter include Shuron, American Optical, Bachman Bros and Montgomery Ward and some Bausch & Lomb aviators from the 1940s. There's even a pair of 1920s protective glasses from the Soviet Union.

The middle section covers the post-war sunglass boom, between 1945 and 1960. Find out here how the demise of ornamental hair combs is linked to eyewear manufacture. And it's from here on in that the book becomes an absolute joy with page after glorious page of amazing eyewear designs. The chapter on the 1960s is superb, with a focus on op-art, featuring contributions from Silhouette, Pierre Cardin, Spec-Trim, Renauld, Ray-Ban, Paulette Guinet, Oliver Goldsmith, Pierre Marly, Oleg Cassini (below) and American Optical (next down).

Continues below...

Above: Shutter sunglasses by Alain Mikli. Above those: are Italian metal sunglasses from Maga Design. And the big blue ones above those are Futura sunglasses from Silhouette. These final three feature in the final chapter, The Age of the Licensed Brand which features yet more amazing styles from Christian Dior, Bollé, Cazal, Moschino by Persol, and some astonishing Jean-Paul Gualtier sunglasses by Murai of Japan.

I particularly like the inclusion of Taiwan or Korea-made sunglasses alongside the Western brands, and Lipow describes the ramifications of Asian-made eyewear on the West's eyewear industries; he even features a Taiwanese "knockoff" of Alain Mikli's famous 'Picasso' 030 frame, directly opposite the genuine spectacle.

Moss Lipow's book is a eyewear design treasure trove, providing exactly the visual history its title promises. It's eyewear eye-candy, at times you don't know where to look! His writing is entertaining and informative and includes numerous little-known gems. But this book is first and foremost about the images, approximately 1,200 of them and every one is presented at a scale such that you can spot wonderful detail. Well worth investing in!

Hover over images for photo credits.

Eyewear: A Visual History by Moss Lipow.
Published by Taschen. UK £34.99, US $59.99, €39.99. 360pp. English/German/French.
ISBN 978-3-8365-2565-7

Also available in Italian/Portuguese/Spanish.
€39.99. ISBN 978-3-8365-2780-4

Buy your copy here:
UK | USA | Deutschland 
España | France | Italia

Sunglasses or glasses on La Brae Street - you decide

HiStyley has long provided EWG with some of our most exciting shots. I love these 1970s/80s lightly tinted shades - the size, shape, the black at the top the contrasts at the sides but fades in the moddle to the light / crystal below... don't know who the glasses are by...

B wears vintage Carrera aviator glasses in Soho

Thanks to B for being happy to let me snap him in his vintage Carrera glasses in Soho, London at the weekend. He bought them on eBay. He purchased wisely! I'm not sure how old these are - any ideas?

Lotho Clark, Lola and Camille sunglasses

Remember Lotho? Of course you do - who could forget  Yuwano?

Here we have a modern take on a classic look, Clark, left.

Next the beautifully coloured and strikingly shaped Lola.

Finally Lotho Eyewear's Camille demonstrates, just like the last time we featured them, a true design edge...

Christian Dior vintage 1970s shades - now these are designer sunglasses!

The 1970s were a special age in eyewear design. These are Christian Dior 2026, available from the newly revamped Cheaters of London website as new-old stock.

Oliver Goldsmith glasses from the 1960s to be re-launched this month

One of the biggest global names in eyewear, Oliver Goldsmith, will be launching retro models of his original glasses designs from the 1960s and 1970s by the end of April, Eye Wear Glasses can reveal.

To begin with they will be available only from David Clulow's Ledbury Road branch in Notting Hill.

Original retro sunglasses from Oliver Goldsmith were launched back in 2005 but, until now, Oliver Goldsmith retro glasses designs have only been available in Japan and the Far East, where the spectacles and brand, described below by A Oliver Goldsmith in a film for the Victoria & Albert Museum, are hugely popular.

These frames pictured are just a fraction of the 2009-10 collection. Exactly which models will be available in the West remains to be seen. All designs are exact copies of original designs, handmade in Japan from top quality acetate. Hover over the pictures above for model names, I've shown the black ones to highlight the great shapes but also shown some of the colours available.

Learn more about Oliver Goldsmith here...

Billionaire Boys Club Series 8 sunglases

Billionaire Boys Club has launched these terrific Series 8 sunglasses, available in tortoiseshell, red and red/silver. This is the best looking tortoiseshell effect I've seen in a while...

Vintage square sunglasses by Safilo - from the bottom of a drawer

It's been a while since I've seen vintage shades as good as these. They're by Italian eyewear giant Safilo and Elisa found them in the bottom of a drawer in a shop in her parents' village in Italy.

I think they're 1960s or 70s. I love the bridge and the detail where the temples join the frame.

With big thanks to eli__sa for letting me publish this terrific photograph. Feel free to comment if you have more detail!

Claire Goldsmith Legacy glasses collection

It brings me great pleasure when I can rave about some British designers and they don't come much greater than Oliver Goldsmith.

Claire Goldsmith relaunched Oliver Goldsmith sunglasses four years ago, recreating many of the vintage designs of the past 70

years.

Claire Goldsmith says, “The collection has been designed by the team I have put together since re-launching the Oliver Goldsmith brand.

"The OG re-launch has been incredibly well received and the classic designs taken from the archive once again can be seen to be worn on some of the coolest faces out there.

"But vintage is just one trick and we can do so much more. Legacy represents the future.”

I agree. Great shapes and I love the mixture of

1950s vintage details with more 1970s and 1980s finishes.

Hold on to that design

team Claire!

Stockists include Artsee in NY and Gogosha Optique in LA. Available February.

55DSL Giulietta and Alfa sunglasses for 2010

I'm liking the colours in 55DSL sunglasses for next year. She wears Giulietta, a 1970s influenced two-colour shape, while he wears two pairs of Alfa, which clearly has a more 1980s feel.

55DSL Giulietta...

55DSL Alfa...

Allyn Scura vintage glasses look brilliant...

... one day I shall meet her!!

Polinelli sunglasses from Lunettes Brillenagentur in Berlin

Italian eyewear designer Ricardo Polinelli launched Polinelli Occhiali in the late 1970s. This looks like a vintage pair from around that time, perhaps 1980s. I love the octagonal corners.

With thanks to Thomas Angermann for the picture. He bought them from Lunettes Brillenagentur in Berlin, which also has a rather brilliant Lunettes Online Shop for classic, never-worn, vintage eyewear.

Cool 1970s Emilio Pucci sunglasses from a New York flea market

I had no idea who these fantastic white sunglasses were by but I loved them. So I posted blown-up detail of the brand on the temple - and "info" (either shy or some default Blogspot name) commented and told me they're by Emilio Pucci from the 1970s. Thanks "info"!!

With thanks to J Bautista in New York for taking this terrific photo of Reese in Brooklyn.