In general, frames boasting bold brow bars are variations on (or, at least, distant relations of) the classic pilot’s sunglasses. The original aviators debuted around 1936, after the US military commissioned Bausch & Lomb to improve on the bulkiness and discomfort of flight goggles. Within the decade, the company was selling them to weekend sportsmen under the Ray-Ban trademark. The frame’s rise to fame — via Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines, Brando in The Wild One, and Maverick and Goose in Top Gun — is a fascinating mash-up of military and pop-cultural history.
The ‘top bar’ — also known as a brow bar or top bridge — goes over-the-top this season
You know a showy top bar — that thingamajig that prominently links the two eye rims at upper points of their perimeters — when you see it. And, you see it all over the place right now, from the mass-marketing of Sunglass Hut to the gold-plated terrain of US$2,000 ($2,774) Tom Ford specs, which boast a spiffy hinge on the high bridge of their clip-on lenses. The inthing in eyewear is right above your nose.
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