One day, we’ll show off fits in real life again, even if it takes a little re-learning along the way. The Highsnobiety Summer Style Guide is here to help, ensuring that lightweight pieces still result in heavyweight looks.
Selecting your sunglasses for summer isn't just a choice of style — it's a choice of style tribe. Are you a fiend for Y2K blue, à la Britney? Or like Lakeith Stanfield, who paired a wide-lapel YSL jumpsuit with orange-tinted sunglasses to this year's Oscars, do you prefer a more '70s-inspired look?
Lenses of the more colorful variety had a moment for much of the early 2000s, but they've returned to the forefront of eyewear on many different genre fronts. Whether it's Oakley outfitting people in sportswear lenses in shades of distant galaxies or younger fashion labels like Gentle Monster going wild with cyberpunk pink (matched to hair by Evan Mock below), there are plenty of ways to invest in the color camp you commit to.
Whichever camp you're in, we've done the hard bit for you, rounding up the best of the best when it comes to bold summer sunglasses. From the yellow lens experiencing a resurgence thanks to the likes of Our Legacy and Gucci down to straight-up classic tints.
Scroll to shop tinted sunglasses by color.
Yellow tinted sunglasses — Our Legacy
Earth Sunglasses
Our Legacy
Yellow lenses have had multiple moments over the decades and they seem to be popping up everywhere again in the summer-ready collections of 2021. This brand new Our Legacy pair is one example. And it's fire.
Pink tinted sunglasses — Sun Buddies
Miuccia Carnation Sunglasses
Sun Buddies
Sunglasses styles from the '90s seem to be everywhere again at the moment. Sun Buddies are certainly on board, offering up this carnation-colored pair that seems to have walked straight off a runway from fashion's favorite decade.
Orange tinted sunglasses — Dries Van Noten
Linda Farrow Edition Oval Sunglasses
Dries Van Noten
The new wave of yellow and orange tinted sunglasses arrives right in time for fashion's currents obsession with the '70s. If you want to go full galaxy brain, fuse that '70s trend with the revival of the sportswear shade via these Dries glasses.
Blue tinted sunglasses — Jacquemus
'Les Lunettes Soleil' Sunglasses
Jacquemus
Blue lens sunglasses can be criminally overlooked, perhaps because some give off a slight "these came free with Smash Hits Magazine" look. If you're still unconvinced, let this pair by Jacquemus, resplendent in colors of the Southern France coastline, convince.
Green tinted sunglasses — Bottega Veneta
Mask Acetate Sunglasses
Bottega Veneta
Banish that image of Liam Gallagher in his borrowed-from-John-Lennon round green specs from your head. This lens color has moved on, and it's available in much nicer hues these days. Bottega lays claim to one of the sunglasses silhouettes of the summer and the olive green lens on this pair is so good.
Brown tinted sunglasses — Oakley
Sutro Lite
Oakley x Highsnobiety
A brown lens is as close to classic as you can get without going for the full blacked-out tint. It also provides some super nice contrast with outfits in green and off-white. Oakley recently revived its Sutro model from the '80s and we teamed up with the label to serve up a pair of sunglasses that are impatiently waiting to be worn to a beach.
Red tinted sunglasses — Balenciaga
Screen 0123S Rectangular Sunglasses
Balenciaga
Sunglasses with red lenses don't necessarily have to give off Cyclops from X-Men vibes (see Brad Pitt in fight club). But these Balenciaga sunnies certainly do.
Black tinted sunglasses — Port Tanger
Ayreen Acetate
Porttanger
If we haven't persuaded you to convert to color lens sunglasses this far, then we salute your integrity. Staying classic doesn't have to mean settling for Ray-Ban, though. Port Tanger is making some of the most beautiful sunglasses around right now and its Ayreen silhouette is a stylish upgrade to your Wayfarer.
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