Take an old-hat brand and slap on your own label and what do you have? Clever marketing, that’s what.
Big brands have a tendency to release “new” styles of glasses which have an uncanny ‘look alike’ factor, which they cleverly sidestep. Take the Ray-Ban ‘Clubmaster’ for instance which looks a lot like the hugely popular ‘Browline’ style of the ‘50s.
The original ‘Browline’ frame (obviously named because the bold acetate section frames the lenses in the same way an eyebrow frames the eye) was invented in 1947 by Vice President of eyeglass company Shuron, Jak Rohrbach, and was such a roaring success that it started a design trend that influenced almost half of all eyeglasses sold in the 1950s. The Browline Ronsir, as it was originally named, was one of the more significant frame designs of the 20th century and the first ever combination frame featuring plastic tops on metal rims with plastic temples.
This classic-American style became synonymous with famous public figures such as Malcolm X and KFC’s Colonel Sanders. Ray-Ban has taken Shuron’s signature Browline design and created the Ray-Ban Clubmaster. Shuron Ltd still produce Browline-style frames to this day and can be reached online at: www.shuron.com
