Everyone Is Suddenly Wearing Ray-Bans Again
Something’s going on with Ray-Bans — again. It doesn’t matter if it’s on Olivia Rodrigo or Leandra Medine Cohen; we can’t stop noticing them. Not since the years 2009–12 — when Chloë Sevigny was photographed in an Aviator and Kate Moss, a Wayfarer — have we thought so much about the brand. “A Ray-Ban comeback is a quintessential part of the cultural trend cycle,” says Natalie Brennan, writer of the newsletter ISO. “I would never bet against a Ray-Ban comeback.”
We’re also not the only people noticing. Gabriel Sommer, co-owner of the West Village boutique Mess, spied a high-schooler in traditional aviators on the steps in Union Square and a muscle-tee’d millennial in an RB3929 by A$AP Rocky on the L train recently. (A$AP Rocky was appointed the brand’s creative director last year.) Publicist Madeleine Fawcett keeps seeing the brand’s round metal frames “here and there” (and owns a pair herself). Gina Esposito, founder of Nu Swim and co-founder of Tangerine, ordered a Daddy-O after seeing someone wearing the style on Instagram. “I thought I should try them,” she says. And she couldn’t help trying other Ray-Ban styles as well — like the Sam, Zuri, and RB4441D.
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If there’s a Ray-Ban that’s particularly back back, it’s the Wayfarer. Sommer himself switched to wearing Wayfarer Puffers every day months ago, and MacKinley Jade Lutes-Adlhoch, who writes the newsletter Yeehawt, recently moved on to polarized Wayfarers from the non-polarized Wayfarers she had in middle school. “The world looks clearer, colors feel brighter, the glare is less harsh, and I can more easily see through water on a sunny day,” she says. Alexandra Gurvitch, senior creative director of The RealReal, has had an on-and-off relationship with Wayfarers for years, too: “I personally tend to come back to them because they always feel current,” she told me.
Could it be a rejection of the small frame? “We seem to be in a transition period. We’ve been moving into oversize-frame territory as of late,” says Lutes-Adlhoch. “Wayfarers are a perfect in-between size.” It helps that they’re relatively cheap, too — cheaper than, say, the similarly shaped Jack by Thistles, which has also been popular.
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Ray-Ban Mega Wayfarer
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Brennan, who co-hosted an episode about the history of Wayfarers with Ruby Redstone for their podcast, Covered, says that “the Wayfarers are really the ‘it’s so over/we’re so back’ of accessories.” She adds, “It has always been the case that if you get a pair of Ray-Bans on the right faces, the cultural impact can be profound,” citing James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and JFK, who all wore the sunglasses, as examples. Fawcett — who has regular Wayfarers, Mega Wayfarers, and Meta Wayfarers — told me she feels most like herself in the frames. And her “chicest friends” — including Daphne Javitch, Olivia Wilde (“who’s been wearing them for as long as I can remember, maybe going all the way back to our boarding-school days”), and president of Loeffler Randall Mariel O’Brien — haven’t strayed from Wayfarers, either. “They’ve got nothing to prove. They’re almost universally flattering. And they’re not 600 bucks,” Fawcett says.
More Ray-Bans to consider …
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The official Ray-Bans of Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson. “I wasn’t the type of person to think that you have shades on inside, but sometimes shades go with the fit,” he told us when we asked about the things he can’t live without. “If you’re walking into a place and all these people are looking at you, taking pictures of you, and you kind of don’t really know where to look, it’s one way to cover your eyes.”
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“Ray-Ban was always the name I associated with ‘fancy sunglasses’ and truthfully, these are still the ‘fanciest’ sunglasses I own,” says writer Amelia Jerden. “I know you can get much, much fancier than Ray-Ban, but why would I ever need to?”
Other sunglasses we recommend
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The winner of contributor Katie Stone’s hunt for nice-looking, under-$50 sunglasses.
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Carolyn Bessette Kennedy–ish, don’t you think?
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Some sporty sunglasses our Erin Schwartz found for a ‘Secret Strategist’ reader.
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