Aviator Sunglasses

In order to find the perfect pair of sunglasses for you, you must know what your face shape is. There are 4 basic face shape types and there are the heart, square, oval and round faces.

Heart shaped faces would look extra beautiful when wearing soft round sunglasses – like the upswept, cat eye or butterfly frames. This is reduce the attention away from the prominent forehead and into the lovely eyes and chin.

Square shaped faces look spectacular with rounded lens shaped sunglasses. Take note that this type of shape is a perfect circle but is instead softly rounded on the corners. If you have a square shaped face, stick to oversized rounded shades to balance out your entire face.

Oval faces are the most universal face shape of all. Anyone with an oval face can wear any shape and size of sunglasses. If you belong to this category, you are one of the lucky individuals that could pull off even the most bizarre sunglass shape of any thickness. The most preferred choice of sunglasses for oval shaped people is the aviator sunglasses. Aviators, as they are often called, are timeless and never go out of style though most pieces today tend to be oversized with bright hints of colors.

For individuals with round faces, it is best to stick to large angular frames. Try sunglasses that feature offset square frames. Just make sure not to over accessorize when wearing this kind of sunglasses though as it is already a statement piece by itself.

Developed by Bausch & Lomb in 1936 at the request of Lt. John A. Macready of the US Army Air Corps after he complained that the sun had damaged his eyesight, the company created the prototype Anti-Glare glasses. It was patterned after pilot's goggles which were often narrow at the point where the eyes meet and widened as they moved away from it, thus giving the glasses the now classic teardrop shape. The frame was made of metal that was plated with gold. The lenses were colored green and were designed to keep out ultraviolet and infrared rays. The glasses, which were branded Ray-Ban, were patented in the following year. Immediately adopted by the pilots of the US Army Air Corps, they became known as Ray-Ban Aviator Sunglasses.

Sale of the Aviator sunglasses, however, was not limited to the pilots of the Army Air Corp. A year after their development, they were offered to the public. Yet it was not until October 1944, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed in the province Leyte, the Philippines to fulfill his earlier promise to the Filipino people to return to the occupied country that the Aviator became popular. MacArthur was photographed wading in the waters Leyte's beaches with his signature corncob pipe, wearing a pair of Ray-Ban Aviator Sunglasses. When he reached the shore, more photos were taken, photos that were eventually published in American newspapers. Following the footsteps of American pilots and a five-star general, the French Army began issuing Aviator sunglasses to its soldiers.

The Aviator soared even higher when Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr of the Beatles began wearing them. Michael Jackson often appeared sporting the sunglasses. Actors Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, and Anthony Edwards all wore Aviators in the movie Top Gun. Closer to the ground, Sylvester Stallone in Cobra, and William Petersen and Willem Dafoe in To Live and Die in L.A. likewise wore the sunglasses.

With all these endorsements from pop icons and movie stars, it is not surprising that the appeal of Aviator sunglasses among non-pilots and non-stars appears never ending. Indeed, almost all other sunglasses manufacturers, both the majors and fly-by-nights, have now come up with their own version of Aviators.