Shine on: take a walk on the mysterious side of the street

Whether employed to block the paparazzi flashbulbs, to hide the evidence of one too many late nights, or to simply shield one's retinas from the sun's rays, sunglasses have an indisputable rock-star quality. Glass-tinting technology was developed in 12th-century China, and for centuries Chinese judges routinely wore smoke-colored quartz lenses to conceal their expressions in court. Sunglasses as we know them were introduced in 1929 by Sam Foster, founder of the Foster Grant company, who sold the first pair in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and by 1930, sunglasses were de rigueur. Soon after, Bausch & Lomb produced glasses for the U.S. Air Force to protect pilots' eyes from the dangers of high-altitude glare. From the '30s onward, sunglasses became the must-have accessory for every Hollywood jet-setter.

Like the courtesan's fan or the film-noir detective's fedora, sunglasses give the wearer an air of unassailable mystery. They rob us of the ability to read the wearer's look at us, substituting dark allure for clear-eyed emotion. From Holly Golightly sporting them with her evening gown and tiara eating her breakfast at Tiffany's to Jackie O.'s ever-ready shades seeming to whip themselves on at the first hint of a camera click to P. Diddy's shades-with-everything styling, sunglasses have become as necessary to a velvet morning as brushing your teeth. Whether it be glares from the sun or glares from the general public, as Dame Muriel Spark so rightly said, "There is a limit to what one can listen to with the naked eye."

Annabel Tollman is Interview's fashion director.

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