Talking About Green

Since the economy boom of the 1980s, sunglasses have been an icon of cool and élan. Certain brands became synonymous with film stars or sportsmen, giving them a cool factor that many people desire. This in turn has caused the amount of pairs produced each year to rise dramatically, along with the number of both designs and designers. Today, more sunglasses are made than ever before, and the range is hugely varied. This goes from budget pairs made for pennies and sold for a few pounds to top luxury brands using precious metals to create design worth thousands (Bentley recently launched a $50,000 pair!)
However, with the recent banking crisis and subsequent downturn in the world economy, the sustainability movement has been growing and more and more products are either made with renewable materials of produced in a partly sustainable process. This has applied to lots of markets, and some more than others. The fashion market has been keen to follow this trend, and the demand for responsibly produced and sustainable materials has shot up in the past few years. Within fashion, sunglasses are no exception, and ‘eco-chic’ is all the rage. Here are some of the more interesting designs that have emerged in the past few years:

- KAYU Bamboo
In a bid to reduce the amount of plastic in the world today, KAYU (meaning wood) have begun to manufacture a completely natural pair of glasses, with stylish carved wooden lenses and biodegradable natural polymer lenses. Better than that, for every pair purchased, $50 is given to the United for Sight charity, which help to support good eye care around the world.

- iWood
Designer Stephen McMenamin began by designing a single pair of sunglasses several years ago, and they proved such a success that the iWood range was launched not long after. They are beautifully crafted for all different types of rare woods including mahogany and ebony, but fear not eco fans, they are all reclaimed from the dash boards and decks of luxury cars and yachts, respectively. The lenses come from Carl Zeiss, so they can be requested in a wide range of tints and prescriptions, and complement the frames really very well.

Some other interesting design and materials that people have been experimenting with are natural resins combined with human hair to create a rather freaky natural material, retro styled shades from Vuerich Brothers that use recycled skateboards to great effect and even flexible glasses made from recycled rubber tyres. The list is almost endless, and i’m sure we will see some fantastic and clever designs in the coming years.

Rich works for Direct Sight, specialists in prescription glasses and designer sunglasses. He is a keen traveller and loves hot and sunny places.