When you hear somebody saying sunglasses made of buffalo horn, never get surprised. Currently, eyeglass and sunglass frames are allowed to be made of a couple of strange materials, like wood, bone, horn, leather, semi-precious or precious stones. Most of these materials have applications to different degrees. In particular, horn is a material that is worth particular mentioning in the eyewear history. The reason is that there is a typical product called horn-rimmed sunglasses that have been around for many decades. Some long-term eyewear users may have heard of this classic item. It is officially defined as a type of eyewear with frames made of horn or tortoise shell. Until now, this definition has been extended and plastic frames that simulate these two materials are also included. The originally used horn or shell gave this name. And modern eyewear manufacturers are definitely able to utilize these natural materials again.
The legend of horn-rimmed sunglasses lies in that this product has exactly set a standard in the long eyewear history. Since its first time of being popular in the 1910s, this classic design has been around for approximately one century. And the miraculous point is that horn-rimmed glasses have never fell back out of fashion completely. Dating back particularly to the pre-World War II era, the horn-rimmed design was one of the most popular choices made by customers, partially because of the lack of eyeglass styles. After that, eyeglasses and sunglasses with a horn-rimmed design have experienced several crests and troughs from one decade to another. The most critical fact is that these glasses are still widely available in the modern market. This rugged experience differentiates this design from most of the others.
It is hard to find some celebrities who wear regularly wood glasses, gold glasses or stone glasses. But in its long history, the fame of horn-rimmed sunglasses has been contributed by lots of celebrities. The most influential example is Harold Lloyd, who wore a pair of horn-rimmed eyewear in all of his movies from 1910s to 1940s. Horn-rimmed glasses were worn by George Reeves’ character Clark Kent in the original TV series Adventures of Superman in the 1950s. Following that, renowned users include Senator Barry Goldwater, Elvis Costello, Bill Gates and Adam Savage.