Whatever you thoughts on Kanye West, it’s hard to ignore the contributions he has made to fashion. Aside from launching Louis Vuitton sneakers and Nike Air Yeezy’s, he started a relatively short lived, yet undeniable trend: Shutter Shades.
The visibility impairing, seemingly impractical sunnies were the highlight of Ye’s 2008 Glow in the Dark tour, and created a literal fury with absolutely everyone rocking the shades in a rainbow of colors:
Of course Kanye didn’t create this look in a vacuum, and was undoubtedly influenced by Sho’Nuff, the Sho’Gun of Harlem from the 1985 cult flick The Last Dragon:
No matter his inspiration, it was Kanye who made the look mainstream and ridiculously popular, if only for a 6 month time span.
Did you own a pair of shutter shades?
Check out these videos to reminisce:
Sho’nuff from the Last Dragon
Kanye West, Stronger
February 12, 2010 5:06 am
We’d like to thing that these sunglasses are forever iconic and are now a timeless classic. Kids forever will be intrigued and inspired by Shutter Shades because of how fashionably outrageous they are, but most importantly how confidence-inspiring they are. Love em or hate em, at least you have a feeling about them – and that’s saying a lot in today’s short-attention span society. They’ll be around forever.
February 12, 2010 10:48 am
I don’t know if I’d call them a black fashion trend. Kanye made them popular, but the main consumer wasn’t the black community.
February 12, 2010 11:02 am
I think it was a trend b/c a black man started it. And how can you count the number of people who wore them?
February 12, 2010 12:43 pm
Dang Claire, did we run out of trends? I can’t believe shutter shades made the list before ‘OPP jackets’, ‘towel coats’, and ‘Jodeci boots’. Maybe those are just Chicago trends.
February 12, 2010 7:55 pm
@sun.kissed I came up with this yesterday and believe it or not, I was actually sad and distraught over Alexander McQueen (still am). Not much of an excuse, perhaps, but the shutter shades post was a hasty one. We’re only halfway through the month, though, and we have a lot more coming down the pipe! And thanks for mentioning the ‘OPP jackets’ ‘towel coats’ etc, I actually hadn’t really heard of those, but will definitely investigate!