aviator glasses

Teardrop lens sunglasses

Aviator glasses have a distinctive teardrop-shaped lens and thin metal frame, originally designed for military pilots in the 1930s to protect their eyes while providing maximum field of vision.

The style became fashionable sunglasses, associated with pilots, police officers, and certain counterculture aesthetics: He pulled off his aviators and squinted at the sun.

Opposites
frame shape

aviator glassescat-eye glasses

Upswept corner eyewear

browline glasses · horn-rimmed glasses

style era/aesthetic

aviator glassesgranny glasses

Small round metal-framed eyewear

pince-nez · spectacles · tortoiseshell glasses · John Lennon glasses · rimless glasses

Family

aviator, aviatrix, aviation, aviate, aviating, glass, glasses, glassy, glassware

Familiarity
Top 200,000
Profile
Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Concrete · Everyday, not technical · Rated G