When was the last time you saw Bono without his signature rimless sunglasses? Probably never, right? How about Karl Lagerfeld and his jet black sunnies? Frankly, I’m not convinced the man’s eyes even exist. Some celebrities take their eyewear very seriously; so seriously that it would shock no one if they had paid a very skilled plastic surgeon to fuse them to their actual face.
Of course, Bono and K. Lagerfeld aren’t the only famous people whose accessories have become an extension of their persona. Judging by Pop Chart Lab’s most recent graphic, The Chart of Famous Eyewear, there are at least 71 other celebrities whose glasses could be considered iconic. Some are more classic than others—think Jackie O’s bug eye shades or Buddy Holly’s proto-hipster, thick-rimmed glasses. But a decent swath of Pop Chart’s visualization celebrates the regrettable lapses in eyewear judgement (i.e. Stunna shades. Why Kanye, why?).
If the layout of the chart looks familiar, that’s because you’ve seen it (or at least tried to see it), every time you go to the doctor. “We immediately settled on wanting to incorporate Herman Snellen's iconic styling,” the designers explained. “As traditional Snellen charts are printed with 11 lines of block letters, we designed the print with 11 lines of frames.” You probably won’t have to squint to make out top-tier specs like Holly Golightly and Steve McQueen, but it gets a little tougher to see Benjamin Franklin’s wire-frames or Lisa Loeb’s librarian tortoise shells. As it should be, each illustration is painstakingly detailed—after all, who would Bootsy Collins be with those stars in his eyes? But Pop Chart claims crafting intricate frames like Randy "Macho Man" Savage's wasn’t even the hardest part of making the chart. It was hands down, “choosing which glasses to feature for Elton John," they said. "Have you ever seen his eyeglass closet?”
You can purchase The Chart of Famous Eyewear over at Pop Chart Lab for $27.
