8 must-have sunglasses from famous Hollywood movies

We might know heart-shaped sunglasses from Lana Del Rey music videos, but the trend goes back to Old Hollywood.

Surprisingly, heart-shaped sunnies weren’t all that popular when they first launched in the 1950s. It was a time when cat-eye frames were all the rage, but the heart-shaped alternative never took off—until, that is, Lolita came out.

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This film, directed by Stanley Kubrick, was a romantic drama that hit cinemas in 1962. With the star, Sue Lyon, wearing the heart-shaped sunglasses on the silver screen–it got the trend up again. 

In fact, on the film’s first publicity poster, Lyon, then a young Hollywood actress, wears red-colored heart-shaped shades. As soon as the film came out in theaters, the style became a hit, and heart-shaped frames were mass produced practically everywhere.

It shows the power that a film can have on hyping the popularity of frame styles, and that celebrity sunglasses will never fade. That still applies today, as when stars wear shades to define a character, that attitude can stay with the sunglasses forever. Whether it’s Sean Connery wearing his Ray-Ban Wayfarers as James Bond, or retro aviators in Scarface, one thing is for sure: Famous glasses worn in movies will never go out of style. They’re worth having in your sunglasses collection, year-round.

Popular Ray-Ban shapes.

Ray-Ban Evolve Glasses Aviator Wayfarer Clubmaster Cat Eye Ray-Ban Ferarri Glasses

Here are the top eight sunglasses from famous movies, and how you can get these looks right now.

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• Atomic Blonde
• Thelma & Louise
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Annie Hall
• Sex and the City
• Scarface
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
• James Bond

Atomic Blonde

Who can forget this fantastic spy thriller? Charlize Theron takes on the role of an elite spy who works with the MI6, fighting to get precious documents as the Berlin Wall is about to fall. She wore a few key pairs of sunglasses to ace her role as Lorraine Broughton, the incognito spy. 

One is a pair of chunky, black square Saint Laurent sunglasses (also worn on the publicity poster of the film). Get the Atomic Blonde look with this pair of Saint Laurent SL 138 SLIM.

Thelma & Louise

This classic 1991 film starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis goes down in history as one of Ridley Scott’s best films. Who can forget those transparent cat-eye shades worn by Sarandon? She paired it up well with a head scarf as they head out on the highway for a free cross-country journey.

Sarandon also wore a pair of Tom Ford Nikita frames in the film, but you can update the look with a more contemporary style: like an ultra-glam pair of Versace VE2207Q Squared Baroque.

The Devil Wears Prada

Nobody played a version of Vogue editor Anna Wintour quite like Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, the iconic 2006 film that offered a scathing (and hilarious) glance into the high fashion media. While Streep, who portrays the icy editor of Runway magazine, Miranda Priestly, opts for wearing Prada sunglasses on most days, when it comes to her sunglasses to hide her steely glare, she wore Versace sunglasses. 

There are so many looks in the film, but a few key Versace looks include the retro Versace VE4413, or even the Versace VE4417U, which just screams lady boss.

Annie Hall

If there is any film about New York City at its most iconic, it has to be Woody Allen’s 1977 romcom, Annie Hall. It follows the story of Allen, falling in love with Annie Hall (played by Diane Keaton), a struggling nightclub singer who is a master at dapper style. She wears preppy ties with cardigans and khakis throughout the film, and pairs them up with a pair of tortoiseshell glasses. Get this retro look with a pair of Michael Kors MK2091 Paloma II in brown.

Sex and the City

Nobody trail-blazes style quite like Sarah Jessica Parker, star of the hit TV show that will make a comeback pretty soon, Sex and the City. There’s no doubt Carrie Bradshaw made numerous styles popular just by wearing them on the show, but one that set the trend (in terms of sunglasses) was when the SATC film came out in 2008. The poster features Parker wearing a pair of gold mirror sunglasses, which are in fact Ray-Ban’s reflective RB3025 aviators. They go great with stilettos, obviously.

Scarface

Al Pacino set the standard style for retro, oversized white aviators in Scarface, Brian De Palma’s 1983 classic. In fact, in the film, Pacino wore a pair of Carrera aviators, which were not the epitome of cool at the time, but have slowly become a common look for stylish men everywhere. 

Get the look with a similar kind of retro frames: Ottoto’s cat-eye glasses in rose gold. Those are not the only memorable shades worn in the film. Michelle Pfeiffer’s cat-eye sunglasses have made a long-lasting impression as well. Get her look with a pair of Muse’s Danita frames.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The famed Hunter S. Thompson book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, was written in 1977, tracing one journalist’s trippy ride through a Disneyland city, like Las Vegas. But this legendary Gonzo journalism tale was only turned into a film in 1998, when Terry Gilliam directed the film, and had Johnny Depp star as the main character, Raoul Duke, who rarely (if ever) takes off his Shooter Ray-Bans throughout the film. Get a look inspired by Depp’s portrayal with th Ray-Ban RB3025 Aviators in gold with black lenses.

James Bond

The franchise has had Bond (initially played by Sean Connery) wear a stylish set of sunglasses since the 1963 film, From Russia With Love, sporting a pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunnies. British actor Daniel Craig, the present -day James Bond, has worn various stylish looks while on set as the secret agent in the famed film franchise. 

In terms of Craig’s style, he wore a pair of rectangular rectangular Persol frames in the 2006 film, Casino Royale, and in the following films, like Quantum of Solace and Skyfall, he has worn dozens of different pairs of Tom Ford sunglasses. Try the classic look with Tom Ford’s TF0682 Camilla-02 frames.