They’re back. We’ve said this about acid washed denim; about poltergeists; about Destiny’s Child, the A Team, buff boys, and basically a bunch of other badass swag. And now we’re saying it about Vuarnet Sunglasses—those hauntingly cool and classic French shades popularized on Europe’s snazziest slopes back in the 60s, when hotshot lens-crafters, Roger Pouilloux and Joseph Hatchiguian, teamed up with dashing ski maestro Jean Vuarnet to popularize the Skilynx lens.
Of course, the lens suited the slope steerer perfectly (all those crystalline reflections on the white pow-pow) or the big time sailor (all those flashing water refractions on the ocean surface)—and Vuarnet flourished, cornering those markets (first as a sponsor for the French National Ski Team, and second, as the sole sunglass sponsor of the America’s Cup boat race).
But let’s be honest—though we may own yachts, and jet off to Mont Blanc for a little schussing and schnitzel, not everyone does. Most—80% of the world’s population in fact—are living in urban environs, quite distant from the usual blinding surfaces of snow and water. Thus, the clever eyewear mongers determined there hadn’t yet been a pair of glasses suited specifically to the refractive environs of our ultra-sleek, ultra-urbanized, contemporary existence. Void recognized; void filled—Vuarnet is releasing two new models of Category 3 eyewear (the Citylynx and Nautilux). What better way then, to kill a few birds with a pair shades?
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Written by Leonardo Schneidermann
Photographed by Ian Morrison
Artwork by Chris Moon
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