Ray Ban

Brand of eyeglasses developed out of a patent for a type of sunglasses, symbolic of the heroes of the Second World War because they were worn by General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander of Allied forces in the Pacific during the Second World War. From the years following WWII to the present day, they have become a sort of status symbol of Americanism in fashion and in aesthetics. Time magazine included them in a collection of icons of Americanism: Coca-Cola, Harley Davidson, and Heinz Tomato Ketchup. The patent was taken out on 7 May 1937 by the Bausch & Lomb company, an American optical products manufacturer that was founded in 1853 and has since become a worldwide colossus. The prototype, known as Anti-Glare, consisted of an extremely light frame -- 150 grams -- made of gold-plated metal with two green lenses made of mineral glass to filter out infrared and ultraviolet rays, was renamed Ray-Ban, for marketing reasons. The name came from the phrase Banish Rays. The story of Ray-Bans, however, began at the turn of the twentieth century with a request from a solitary long-distance balloon adventurer. In 1920, lieutenant John MacCready had crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and his eyes had been damaged by the sunlight because he had no suitable eye protection. Once he had finished the crossing, he contacted Bausch & Lomb to ask them to manufacture a highly protective pair of eyeglasses, both panoramic and elegant. This led to the prototype made in 1937. It was immediately adopted by the pilots of the Army Air Force and Bausch & Lomb became the army's sole supplier. When General MacArthur, Ray-Bans on his nose, landed in the Philippines, surrounded by photographers with flashbulvs and movie cameras, those sunglasses became mythical and it was to pay a debt of gratitude that in the 1950s, a model of sunglasses was dedicated to the general. After authentic heroes, it was the turn of movie heroes to become the more-or-less involuntary spokesmen for Ray-Ban: Marlon Brando and James Dean, Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in Blues Brothers, Tom Cruise in Top Gun. Among the best known models are the Large Metals, the Wayfarers, the Shooters, and the Outdoorsman, the Baloramas, and the Olympias. Of the Large Metal Aviator glasses, there are 6 million sold worldwide every year. At the end of April 1999, the Ray-Bans, along with other brands in the sunglasses division of Bausch & Lomb, were purchased by the Italian company Luxottica, owned by Leonardo Del Vecchio, for about 1.2 billion dollars. The entire acquisition amounted to annual revenue of about 830 billion liras. 2003, June. The sunglasses worn by Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu, the stars of the second film in the Charlie's Angels series were created specially by Ray-Ban. For the movie, the designers created three different models, one per "angel." Ray-Ban introduced five new models for the historic collection of eyeglasses, which were added to already crowded array of 43 models. The first Junior collection of sunglasses debuted: their marketing claim was "My First Ray-Ban." Lorenzo Scaccini, a Milanese photographer who "specialized" in children's products -- he also did the pictures for the campagns of Versace Young, Chicco, Pampers, Mister Baby, and Sony Playstation -- was responsible for the image and opted for Saint-Tropez as a background.