It is not often that the superstar celebrities of music, sport, fashion and royalty all agree on one look, but summer 2024 is the exception. Wraparound sports sunglasses have been centre stage at Glastonbury, the Olympics and everywhere in between.
More than 2,000 Olympic athletes wore Oakley sunglasses at this year’s Games. Some were chosen to wear the brand’s latest innovations, such as the revolutionary QNTM Kato frames, which, true to brand, have been designed to fit as close to the face as possible and block out the discomfort of peripheral light: the wraparound style.
Team GB middle-distance runner Josh Kerr was wearing his signature Oakley Sphaeras when he won silver last week, while American shot putter Raven Saunders wore Nike Zeus to compete.
Many spectators also sported wraparound shades, including Princess Anne – long considered a fashion icon by stylists – in her favourite Adidas Adizero Tempos.
Though the wraparound style, which is supposed to have been invented by Oakley in the 1980s, has not been in fashion since the 1990s, many other brands have their own versions.
Frames known as sunshields – exaggerated, oversized wraparounds – are also popular this summer, and have been worn by the singers Rihanna, Katy Perry and SZA.
Alexa Chung recently posted a selfie of herself rocking a pair of Marks & Spencer men’s wraparounds on Instagram Stories. She called them “rave shades”, though to M&S, they are “sport sunglasses”.
“[The trend] has been building for a few years, but with the Olympics, suddenly everything’s coming together,” said Katie Devlin, fashion forecaster at trends intelligence agency Stylus.
Over the last few years, Oakley has pulled off some high profile collaborations with, for example, Palace skatewear, Junya Watanabe menswear and Brain Dead streetwear.
But, said Devlin: “The brand didn’t become cool because of those collaborations. The collaborations came about because people were suddenly interested in Oakley. Being uncool is what’s so appealing about them.”
The trend “began in irony”, according to Devlin: “In youth culture, actor Adam Sandler has become this huge style icon, so co-opting lame ‘dad’ clothing – whether it’s wraparound sunglasses or Salomon shoes – has become a thing.