Gwyneth Paltrow’s Courtroom Glasses Have Already Taken Off with Gen X
Gwyneth Paltrow’s choice of eyewear has seen her described as being ‘on trial in 1987 for hiring a hitman to kill her husband’. But as history shows, the appeal of aviators is undeniable.
The courtroom dialogue in the Gwyneth Paltrow ski trial, in which she’s denying fault in a collision with a retired optometrist on the slopes in 2019, has spun Twitter gold: “This case is whiter than Mitt Romney at a mayo convention in Utah during a snowstorm,” one tweet said in response to a neuroradiology specialist’s testimony that the alleged victim’s injuries prevented him from enjoying wine tasting.
But, as is often true when female celebrities find themselves in a courtroom setting, the outfits of the trial’s famous defendant have sparked as much chatter as the proceedings themselves. Take, for instance, Paltrow’s choice of eyewear: gold, wire-framed aviator-style glasses. “Gwyneth Paltrow looks like she’s on trial in 1987 for hiring a hitman to kill her husband,” read one widely circulated tweet about her frames. Jeffrey Dahmer and Adam Driver’s portrayal of Maurizio Gucci have also been invoked.
The most iconic aviator frames are by Ray-Ban, and they date back to the ‘30s, when they were originally created for US military pilots as something they could safely wear during flight, says Daniel Alder, vice president of marketing for Ray-Ban North America. The costumey impact of the classic aviator is undeniable – for example, you can’t dress up as Napoleon Dynamite without a pair.
Yet aviators’ appeal, particularly among a certain subset of high-profile, Gen-X women, is undeniable. Consider Carrie Bradshaw’s readers: On the original Sex and the City, a 30-something Carrie wears slim, oval black frames, while on And Just Like That..., the years have passed, and the glasses have evolved to a sleek, champagne-gold, drop-aviator shape (specifically, the Meryl by Mykita). “It’s really this 50-something Gen-X woman that we’re seeing [the aviator] on the most,” says Tim Parr, founder and CEO of eyewear company Caddis. (Paltrow’s courtroom frames appear to be the Caddis Hooper style.) “There’s this momentum that’s happening with the aviator style,” Parr says, “and we continue to design more of them because of the success we’re seeing.” At New York’s Silver Lining Opticians, which stocks both modern and deadstock styles from the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, co-founder Jordan Silver confirms that more women, 40-something and beyond, are drawn to aviators, which have also been spotted on Katie Couric, Demi Moore, Kerry Washington, Jenna Lyons, Jennifer Aniston and Tracee Ellis Ross. Silver says part of the appeal is comfort. “There’s a wide vision, they’re sporty and they’re a lot more comfortable than small glasses,” says Silver, adding that, unlike with plastic frames, the aviator’s nose pads can be adjusted to make the bridge fit.
While the aviator may not necessarily be a youthful look – some would argue the shape actually drags the face down – fans don’t seem to care. “They’re not trying to hide their age,” adds Silver, who says many aviator customers often get them with transitional lenses, which darken in bright light. When Matthew McConaughey, a fan of tinted aviators, was asked about them in a 2021 Good Morning America interview, he said, “They’re just shady enough.” One major selling point is that the aviator doesn’t abide by prescribed gender norms. “It’s a really gender-neutral frame, and it can look kind of tough, too,” says Silver. It takes a certain confidence to pull off. “There’s an empowerment to the look,” says Parr. “You can’t ignore the fact that there’s a nostalgic component too.”
Ali MacGraw, Sophia Loren and, perhaps most famously, Gloria Steinem have all embraced the frame at some point in their style history. (Steinem long wore Ray-Ban Shooters, and when Rose Byrne and Julianne Moore played her on screen, they did too.) Indeed, that throwback appeal is the main reason Stacy London, longtime stylist and founder of the brand State of Menopause, counts herself an avid aviator wearer. “The oversized version feels so reminiscent to me of the 1970s and Gloria Steinem. Can wearing aviators feel like a little piece of revolution? I don’t know, but I’d sure like to think so,” she says. “The aviator really flatters most face shapes. And who doesn’t love versatility with a dash of eternal cool?”
The Wall Street Journal
