How Wraparound Sunglasses Won the Fashion Gold Medal at the Paris Olympics | Paris 2024 Olympic Games

IIt’s not often that superstars of music, sport, fashion, and royalty all agree on a single look, but summer 2024 is the exception. Wraparound sports sunglasses took center stage at Glastonbury, the Olympics, and everywhere in between.

More than 2,000 Olympic athletes wore Oakley sunglasses at this year’s Games. Some were chosen to wear the brand’s latest innovations, such as the revolutionary QNTM Kato frames, which, true to the brand, are designed to sit as close to the face as possible and block out the discomfort of peripheral light: the wraparound style.

British middle-distance runner Josh Kerr wore his signature Oakley Sphaeras when he won silver last week, while American shot putter Raven Saunders wore Nike Zeus during the competition.

Many onlookers also wore wraparound sunglasses, including Princess Anne – long regarded as a fashion icon by stylists – in her favourite Adidas Adizero Tempos.

Although the wraparound model, which was said to have been invented by Oakley in the 80s, has been out of fashion since the 90s, many other brands have their own versions.

The so-called sunshields – exaggerated, oversized frames – are also popular this summer and have been worn by singers Rihanna, Katy Perry and SZA.

Alexa Chung recently posted a selfie of herself wearing a pair of Marks & Spencer men’s wraps on Instagram Stories. She called them “rave shades”, but for M&S they’re “sports sunglasses”.

According to M&S, demand for sports sunglasses is up 73% year-on-year, while at Selfridges, searches for Oakley sunglasses have increased 140% in the past three months.

“(The trend) has been going on for a few years, but with the Olympics, everything suddenly comes together,” said Katie Devlin, fashion forecaster at trend information agency Stylus.

In recent years, Oakley has entered into a number of notable collaborations with the likes of Palace Skatewear, Junya Watanabe Menswear and Brain Dead Streetwear.

But, Devlin said, “The brand didn’t become cool because of those collaborations. The collaborations happened because people were suddenly interested in Oakley. The uncool thing is that they’re so attractive.”

The trend “started ironically,” Devlin says: “In youth culture, actor Adam Sandler has become a huge style icon, so adopting boring ‘dad’ clothes – whether it’s sunglasses or Salomon shoes – has become a thing.

“But if you still don’t believe in the daddy shadow trend and you think performance wraparounds are always going to look unspeakably ugly, then maybe that’s just a sign of your age,” she added. “There’s an element of not caring what people think of you,” which she thinks is particularly appealing to younger people.

She also pointed out that the difference in attitude is similar to when an uncle asks incredulously if you really paid a lot of money for your ripped jeans: “It’s that idea of, if people don’t get it, maybe you’re doing something right. It’s cool if people do get it.”

Demna Gvasalia, the provocative Georgian designer who co-founded fashion label Vetements and is creative director of Balenciaga, was an early adopter of the wraparound sunglass. He loves parody, and his recent designs include a Lay’s crisps handbag – a £1,600 take on the Ikea bag – and a towel skirt.

In 2018, Vetements collaborated with Oakley, and two years ago, Gvasalia had his many famous muses, including Kim Kardashian, Naomi Campbell and Bella Hadid, wear Balenciaga’s Oakley-inspired sci-fi sunglasses.

According to Natalie Hartley, fashion stylist and founder of vintage clothing store Chillie London, the fashionable way to wear wraparounds is to style them with “dad clothes – baggy jorts (jean shorts), white socks, brogues, a Ralph (Lauren) shirt with a crop top underneath and a baseball cap. It’s preppy cool, it’s masculine sexy – and definitely a bit ‘dad’.”

For Olympian Kerr, there is a different appeal. He said his signature Oakleys make him stand out on the court. “When the glasses are on, it’s game time,” he told BBC Sport.