The History of Sunglasses: From Snow Goggles to Polarized Lenses

How sunglasses evolved from carved Arctic snow goggles to aviators, wayfarers, polarized lenses and smart glasses — and what that history means for buying a…

Sunglasses feel like a modern accessory, but people have been shielding their eyes from harsh light for thousands of years. The story runs from carved bone in the Arctic to military flight gear, Hollywood glamour, and lens chemistry — and almost every frame you can buy today traces back to one of a handful of moments in that history.

Ancient eye protection: Arctic snow goggles

The earliest known sun protection for the eyes came from Arctic peoples, including the Inuit and Yupik. They carved goggles from bone, ivory, antler, or driftwood, with a thin horizontal slit to look through. The slit cut the amount of light reflecting off snow and ice, helping prevent snow blindness — a painful sunburn of the cornea. There was no lens at all, but the principle is the one every modern pair still follows: reduce the light reaching the eye.

Emeralds, smoky quartz, and early tinted lenses

Classical writers left a famous anecdote: Pliny the Elder described the Roman emperor Nero watching gladiator contests through a polished emerald. Historians debate whether it was for glare, magnification, or simple display, but it is often cited as an early tinted lens. In China, flat panes of smoky quartz were used as eye shades centuries ago, and a widely repeated story says judges wore them to hide their expressions in court. They darkened the view, though they did nothing to filter ultraviolet light.

In 18th-century England, the optician James Ayscough experimented with blue- and green-tinted spectacle glass. His goal was to correct vision problems rather than block the sun, but tinted glass became associated with eye comfort. Through the 19th century, tinted spectacles were often prescribed for people with light sensitivity and certain illnesses.

The 1920s and 1930s: sunglasses go mainstream

The modern sunglasses business arguably begins in 1929, when Sam Foster sold inexpensive tinted glasses on the Atlantic City boardwalk under the Foster Grant name. Beach-goers bought them, and Hollywood stars soon wore dark lenses to dodge the glare of studio lights — and fans. By the 1930s, sunglasses had become a fashion statement as much as a practical tool.

Two breakthroughs in the 1930s set the template for the century. Edwin Land developed a practical polarizing film, and Polaroid sunglasses using it reached the market in the late 1930s — the first lenses designed to cut reflected glare rather than just darken the view. At the same time, Bausch & Lomb developed anti-glare goggles for American military pilots flying at high altitude. Released to the public in 1937 under the Ray-Ban name, they became the aviator. Read the full story in our history of aviator sunglasses.

The 1950s: plastic frames and the wayfarer

After World War II, new injection-molding techniques made it possible to produce sturdy plastic frames in bold shapes. In 1952, Ray-Ban released the Wayfarer, a trapezoidal acetate frame that broke away from the thin-metal look. The same decade gave us exaggerated cat-eye frames for women and the browline, a frame with a heavy top bar that later inspired the Ray-Ban Clubmaster. In Italy, Persol — founded in Turin in 1917 — introduced its 649 model in 1957 for tram drivers who needed protection from wind and dust. The Persol 649 is still in production. See our history of the wayfarer for how one frame defined cool.

The 1960s and 1970s: counterculture and big lenses

The 1960s brought small round wire frames, worn by musicians like John Lennon, which the Ray-Ban Round Metal and budget rounds such as the zeroUV Retro Metal Round still echo. Steve McQueen made Persol's folding 714 famous on screen. The 1970s swung the other way, toward oversized lenses and gradient tints. Corning's photochromic glass — lenses that darken in sunlight — moved from labs into sunglasses during this era and later became the core of Serengeti.

The 1980s and 1990s: sport performance and movie moments

Two films revived two classic frames: the wayfarer after Risky Business (1983) and the aviator after Top Gun (1986). At the same time, a new category arrived: performance sunglasses. Oakley, founded by Jim Jannard in 1975 as a motocross-grip company, moved into eyewear in the 1980s with wraparound shields for athletes. The Oakley Frogskins launched in 1985 and showed a sports brand could make lifestyle frames too. Polarized specialists followed: Maui Jim began in Hawaii in 1980, and Costa Del Mar started in Florida in 1983 with fishing in mind.

The 2000s to today: lens tech, budget brands, and smart glasses

The last two decades brought contrast-tuned lenses such as Oakley Prizm, Smith ChromaPop, Maui Jim PolarizedPlus2, and Costa 580 — lenses engineered to boost specific colors instead of simply darkening everything. Online retail made affordable polarized lenses common: brands like Goodr and Knockaround sell polarized frames at a fraction of the old prices. And sunglasses have become devices: the Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer adds a camera, speakers, and microphones to the 1952 silhouette.

What sunglasses history teaches buyers today

Three lessons hold up. First, the purpose comes first: snow goggles, aviators, and polarized fishing lenses each solved a specific glare problem, so start with the activity. Second, darkness is not protection; early tinted glass did nothing against ultraviolet light, which is why a clear UV400 or 100% UV label matters — see UV labels explained. Third, the classic shapes survive because they fit a wide range of faces. Our face-shape guides and the AI Fit Advisor can help you pick the right one.