The original Ray Ban Aviators?
Sometimes it takes a little rummaging around to find those certain items that fit the need or are so perfect they turn out to be a once-in-a-lifetime find that turns your life around. A few years ago, I was in a little second-hand shop called Urban Redeux @urbanredeux in the Hollin Hills area of Mount Vernon and there it was, a pair of old sunglasses on a back shelf with no price tag and no label.
They were just sitting there and needed a home so I grabbed them and hit the store owner with the million-dollar question: “How much are these?” The store owner, Willow Wright, was glad to make the sale. She found them in the top drawer of an old dresser and didn’t think twice about selling them.
Ten dollars was the price, so the old sunglasses found a new home, and maybe more. Out in the car, I looked them over better. They were aviator-style glasses with wire rims and slightly shaded lenses, and the “arms,” had half-circle hooks to go behind the ear. They screamed “antique.” I could even picture General Douglas MacArthur wearing these as he landed on the beach in the Philippines.
Oh I had something here, for sure. Could these even be the original pair of Ray Ban aviator glasses? I say yes - That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Urban Redeux has a vibe and the glasses share that vibe.
Willow Wright at Urban Redeux
The store opened in September 2018 and Wright has seen her share of second-hand treasure hunters come in through the doors. She doesn't take donations out of the blue but had an odd experience once when a man brought in a rocking chair he swore was haunted. Apparently his wife and daughter had seen a little boy rocking in the chair, which seems to be something seen in the script of "American Pickers," but Wright accepted the chair as a donation and turned around and sold it to the next customer that came in the door. After hearing the story, my sunglasses were gaining some notoriety.
Ray Ban started under a different name in the mid 1800s in Rochester, New York and then Arkansas before their headquarters ended up in Milan, Italy where it is now. Back in the early 1900s when two guys – J Bauche and Henry Lomb – opened a glasses shop and discovered a lens technology that put them ahead in the glasses, or the “spectacle” business, as the old timers would say.
Airplanes were just getting off the ground around those times and Col. John McCreedy needed something for the pilots of the early planes to block the sun from all angles so they experimented with the shape of the lens. Hence the first pair of aviator sunglasses were born. World War II came along and getting gold for the wire rims and deer antler material that was needed for other parts of the glasses was tough because of war needs so somehow they worked around that. Plastic wasn’t around much then.
Hollywood got involved and fast forward to a sunglass-wearing James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause,” and then Audrey Hepburn having Breakfast at Tiffany’s, or Robert Duvall coming in low out of the rising sun in Apocalypse Now. Everybody was wearing them – could my pair have started this whole thing? Maybe, just maybe. After all, with all the reality shows about the rare finds, i.e. the “American Pickers,” and “Antique Showcase,” it could be possible.
Urban Redeux was hit by the Hollywood vibe too. Collectors periodically come in with military memorabilia of vintage postcards on their list but don't really let on to anything more. Most are “just browsing,” Wright said, remembering a visit last summer. "I was able to help a couple of Netflix set designers secure a few pieces for an upcoming movie that was shot on the mall," she added. Good thing I already had the glasses by then.
My pair is old and does have weird material on the frames so this part might fit the original Ray Bans theory. Over the past 100 years, the glasses could’ve gotten into the top drawer of that dresser back in Rochester, or Arkansas, and as the years passed, someone donated the dresser to someone else who put it in their basement to collect dust for years. Eventually the dresser landed at Urban Redeux, and the glasses finally into my hands. Again, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Urban Redeux Vintage
7916 Fort Hunt Road, Alexandria, VA 22308
Wednesday through Friday 11am to 4pm
Saturday 10-4, Sunday 11-3
703-780-4301 @urbanredeux
https://www.urbanredeux.com/