Keep it cool like McQueen for sunglasses this year
WHAT are the coolest shades ever worn on the silver screen? Marcello Mastroanni in black Persols and a sharp suit in Fellini’s 8½ was the quintessential suave Italian, in Top Gun Tom Cruise made Ray-Ban aviators an ‘80s style icon, while Reservoir Dogs and even the Blues Brothers must be in with a shout. But top prize has to go to Steve McQueen in one of the most stylish films of the 1960s, the Thomas Crowne Affair – resplendent as an international art thief in light grey suit and blue-tinged, fold-up Persols that matched his tie and gloves.
That style of sunglasses is bang on trend right now – relatively small, rounded, and suave. It’s a shape that happens to be more flattering to more shapes of face than, for example, Wayfarers or aviators. Indeed, Persol are selling McQueen fold-ups, but rather than simply copying the great man’s style, we say be inspired by it. These are the sunglasses that mix his old-fashioned hipness with up-to-date slickness.
WHERE TO BUY:
1 Cutler & Gross, £275 www.mrporter.com
2 Ray-Ban round gold frame, www.sunglasshut.co.uk
3 Linda Farrrow Luxe Sunglasses, £305 www.mrporter.com
4 Oliver Peoples, J gold frame, £265, www.adamsimmonds.co.uk
5 Persol round acetate frames, £189, www.davidclulow.com
6 Paul Smith, Chaucer frames in khaki, £189, www.davidclulow.com