Key Styles

Tom Ford

Few fashion designers have Tom Ford’s ability to enter and own product categories, and boss them. Like Tom Ford colognes and beauty, his eyewear is some of the most sought after in the world.

So good an advertisement was the multitalented Mr Ford’s directorial debut, 2009 film A Single Man, that he was forced to release a style based on Best Actor BAFTA winner Colin Firth’s specially made frames: the TF 5178. The giveaway silver T at the temples is also visible on Daniel Craig’s “secret” agent James Bond in Quantum of Solace, Skyfall and Spectre.

Key Styles

Oakley

Started in 1975 in the garage of Californian motorbike salesman Jim Jannard, Oakley made grips for motocross before branching out into goggles, which he trimmed down and added coat hangers to in order to stop the setting sun side-blinding him while driving parallel to the ocean. High-tech wraparounds played well with athletes, including Michael Jordan, and Tom Cruise, who wore a self-destructing pair in 2000’s Mission: Impossible 2.

Oakley exploded in popularity before its ubiquity detonated its cool factor; always functional, it’s fashionable once more thanks to nineties nostalgia, dad style and Palace. And it’s not just the divisive sports sunglasses: the opticals are arguably a lot more wearable.

Key Styles

Oliver Goldsmith

An OG in two senses, Oliver Goldsmith was established in 1926, just before eyewear became status-symbol accessories: it was the first eyewear brand to collaborate with fashion houses for the catwalk, appear in Vogue and find favour with celebrities such as Peter Sellers, John Lennon and Michael Caine.

The latter style eye-con frequently wore OG off screen and on, notably as spy Harry Palmer in 1965’s The Ipcress File (“Do you always wear your glasses?” “Yes. Except in bed.”) Unusually for the oligopoly that is opticals, the business remains in the family: Oliver’s great-grandaughter Claire oversees it today.