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Sunglasses

The Designer Brands Proving Prescription Sunglasses Can Be Fashionable

When it comes to choosing a pair of protective yet stylish sunglasses, there are a few key factors you need to consider. The perfect sunglasses should provide a high level of UV protection

When it comes to choosing a pair of protective yet stylish sunglasses, there are a few key factors you need to consider. The perfect sunglasses should provide a high level of UV protection, match your face shape, and complement your skin’s undertone. If you’re among the majority of Brits—77% of women and 68% of men—who need glasses or contact lenses, you’ll also want to make sure your sunnies can accommodate your prescription. 

However, there aren’t a lot of options out there that provide both form and function. Clip-on sunglasses, though convenient, can look clunky because of the hinges they use. And while photochromic or Transitions lenses can be seamless, they won’t work as well in the colder temperatures that the UK experiences most of the year. 

Fortunately, you can still get a pair of aesthetically pleasing yet effective sunglasses even if you need to add your prescription to them. These designer brands embed the corrective powers you need straight into their lenses—and combine them with their vast collections of elegantly designed frames, proving that prescription sunglasses can, in fact, be fashionable. 

Scout 

Sunglasses

Credit: @elspethfit and @glasses_direct on Instagram

If you’re looking for something feminine yet playful, Scout sunnies show that you can easily find a pair of prescription sunglasses that perfectly matches your sense of style. A brand exclusively available on Glasses Direct, it’s well known for bestselling women’s sunglasses like the Jenny and East. Made with the highest level of Italian craftsmanship, their playfully shaped frames come with a modern, vibrant theme and expert detailing that always aims to provide something different. Despite that, the lenses you can get with a pair of Scout sunnies are exceedingly versatile, as they come in single-vision, reading, and bifocal or varifocal varieties depending on your vision correction needs. 

Prada

Sunglasses

Credit: @loptique on Instagram

If there’s one thing this luxury fashion label is known for, it’s the ability to break boundaries and seamlessly combine the classic and the modern. That was made especially apparent when Prada debuted a futuristic womenswear collection on the runway last September. Comprising crumpled trench coats and studded silver skirts accessorised with larger-than-life alien sunglasses, the release truly embodied Prada’s spirit of innovation in fashion. That ethos extends to the brand’s prescription sunglasses designs, which remain bestsellers on sites like Fashion Eyewear. Here, viral models like the Symbole—which have been worn by the likes of Maya Jama and Lewis Hamilton—offer their sleek, geometric frames to elevate the appearance of regular corrective eyewear, once again proving how a designer eye can revolutionise sunglasses options for wearers who need vision correction.

Persol

Sunglasses

Credit: @sunglassesconnection on Instagram

Founded in 1917, Persol is considered one of the highest-quality luxury eyewear brands, making it a go-to for other influential names in the fashion industry. That includes avant-garde designer JW Anderson, who released an exclusive collection of men’s sunglasses with Persol in 2021. The models here embody quiet luxury in new and innovative ways to reach new heights of creativity in eyewear. That’s why it’s no surprise that Persol’s range of prescription sunglasses carries that same flair. From the PO3310S – Black Arrow to the 714SM – Steve McQueen, they fully leverage subtle design details to show that even vision-correcting sunnies can exude an editorial finish. 

Ray-Ban 

Sunglasses

Credit: @tymthecomedicginger on Instagram

With Ray-Ban being one of the—if not the—biggest names in eyewear, it’s no surprise that it goes beyond ensuring its prescription sunglasses look stylish. Thanks to a partnership with Facebook parent company Meta, the brand is making their corrective eyewear intelligent, too. The increasingly popular Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are outselling their predecessor, the Ray-Ban Stories, despite the fact that both models offer hands-free features like calling, texting, media capture, and social media integration. The Stories had a clunky design—and the Meta improves on that. Wearers can now get them with sunglass tints, prescription lenses, and both, wrapped in popular Ray-Ban frames like the Wayfarer, Skyler, and Headliner. Those who require stronger corrective lenses can even use the brand’s website to filter the available smart frames with a High Prescription tool, showing just how fashionable prescription sunglasses can get in terms of both style and technology.