The Chinese were the first to wear their sunglasses at night

The Chinese were the first to wear their sunglasses at night... (haha) no, I mean to wear the first things that resembled sunglasses.

Back back in the 12th century day, Chinese judges would wear "glasses" made of thin lenses of smokey quartz to shield their expressions when they questioned witnesses. Note, Eskimo tribes wore "sunglasses" during prehistoric times, way before the Chinese judges, but they were not made of translucent material; they were thin slices of ivory with slits cut into them, (kinda like Kanye glasses).

The first eyeglass that resembled modern sunglasses appeared during the 18th century when James Ayscough began playing around with green and blue tinted lenses in an attempt to cure vision problems.

Glamorized by Hollywood (see fig. 1), sunglasses became popular in the beginning of the 20th century. In 1929 American entrepreneur Sam Foster began to mass produce sunglasses and sell them at the Jersey Shore, (how fitting) where they were extremely popular.

Fig.1

Now we have sunglasses that come in all different shapes, sizes and colors. How do you know what is in for this season? Maybe consult the experts...



The shades featured in the segment can be found at your local Solstice Sunglass Boutique.