No matter the occasion, you need a solid set of shades. And who better than Hollywood’s leading men to look to for some style cues. Below are the most classic, iconic, and crazy shades worn on the big screen that you can’t go wrong with.
(**Some of our picks are similar pairs to what the character wore in the film – not all accurate 100%**)
Top Gun
It only took a real aviator to bring back the original sunglasses and skyrocket them into global popularity – Aviator sunglasses were originally designed for pilots in 1936 by Ray-Ban to protect their eyes while flying. Aviators were given their name due to their original intention of protecting aviator’s eyes. Ray-Ban began selling the glasses to the public a year after they were developed.
Top Gun Maverick’s Ray-Ban Aviator Sunglasses
Men in Black
As Will Smith sings in the movie’s theme song, these men in “the black suits with the black Ray-Bans on,” not only saved the world from alien invasion and world destruction, they elevated the Ray-Ban RB 2030 Predator sunglasses to iconic status.
Men in Black in Ray-Ban Sunglasses
North by North West
When Cary Grant first dons his sunglasses in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, he’s hiding, rather unconvincingly, from the police at Grand Central Station. When he takes them off, he is successfully propositioning Eva Marie Saint for sex in a train dining car. The shades he has are round, green-tinted lens with a tan plastic tortoiseshells frames.
Get Cary Grant’s North by Northwest look in these RetroSuperFuture shades
Risky Business
Who can forget the moment Tom Cruise slid into our lives in the iconic white-button-down-and-tube-socks with oversized black shades. Thanks to him, the Ray-Ban brand was officially back in business in the mid-80’s, and Wayfarers hit the scene running behind Tom Cruise in Risky Business.
Tom Cruise in Risky Business in the classic Ray-Ban Wayfarer Sunglasses
Scarface
Who’s going to argue style with Mr. Tony Montana? His pair of oversized black frame Aviator-style sunglasses scream 1980s – but for a man cool, calm and collected enough who also might bust out a tommy gun at any second – there are worse things your style can suggest.
Scarface’s Tony Montana in black plastic frame Aviators
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Johnny Depp goes all the way as Hunter S. Thompson’s paranoid, acid-fueled wild man behind these quintessentially Thompson-ish Aviator sunglasses.
Johnny Depp’s wild Aviators
The Hangover
Because we all know the ultimate lifesaver for a hangover the morning after is a pair of reliable, light-blocking, hopefully cool-looking sunglasses. We love how ahead of the game this baby is. Game over.
The baby’s Hangover glasses
Taxi Driver
Classic De Niro. Classic crazy. Classic shades. What more could you need?
Robert De Niro in Ray-Ban Caravan sunglasses
The Terminator
What pair of acetates can last through time travel, fights with cyborgs, multiple botched assassinations, perform robot-arm surgery, and shootouts in police stations? Oakleys, obviously. – Complex Magazine
The Terminator’s black-out badass Oakley sunglasses
A Better Tomorrow
Hong Kong crime pictures have a long and substantive tradition of their heroes wearing kick-ass sunglasses, but the apex of the form remains this pair, from John Woo’s legendary A Better Tomorrow, which made the style so famous that they are remain better associated with this film. –Esquire
