The Best Sunglasses for Looking Hotter Than Your Best Friend's Mom

Sunglasses know no season, but hot damn if we don’t need them twice as hard come summertime. Once those flea markets pop off, the flowers bloom, and the Aperol spritzes begin to flow, our poor little peepers need a jumbo Claritin and fresh pair of sunnies that scream, “My other car is your mom.” 

Are we guilty of starting a GoFundMe for the Oakley Over The Top sunglasses? You betcha. But the best sunglasses shouldn’t have to cost you all your coins, and honestly, most of our shades are destined to get tossed around tote bags, forgotten in Ubers, or crunched by a rogue rear end. (We can’t be expected to control where this sweet peach lands!) But that doesn’t mean we deserve to wear fake, neon Ray-Bans that look like they were given to us by a club promoter on a Florida beach. We’re grown now, dude, and we require the facial accessories that prove it. 

Whether you seek a new set of shades for the beach, or a practical pair that you can wear at night better than a Blues Brother, we’ve got you covered with the best sunglasses this side of the Bermuda Triangle. We found everything from 90s-nostalgic wire-frame shades to high fashion Euphoria dupes; we’ve gathered the best sunglasses bundles, Y2K-style shades, Mad Max-worthy pairs, and so much more.  

Nothing says, “I think I left my bass here last night” quite like a pair of Wayfarers. Besides, has any pair of sunglasses lived as many lives as Ray-Bans? These iconic shades have graced the faces of The Blues Brothers, Johnny Marr, JFK, Roy Orbison, Tom Cruise (lol) in Risky Business, and so many others. If you own these, there’s a good chance you might (already) be on tour somewhere, smell like a 1970s phone book, and idolize Jack Kerouac. We’d roll our eyes some more, but you’d still look slick, dammit.  

Not one, but four pairs of soft-rectangle shaped sunglasses come in this 4.7-star rated Amazon bundle. “They come exactly [as pictured],” writes one reviewer about the sunnies, which come in black, cream, sage, and tortoiseshell colorways. “They’re just great overall.” They’re also one of the most affordable sets you can get online that actually look good, on sale now for roughly $5 per frame. 

“Not quite square, not quite round” is how Warby Parker describes this best-selling pair of sunglasses, which are the ideal shades for indecisive—but discerning and well-read—hot people such as yourself. 

Ah, the 1990s. Grunge reigned supreme, our brows could cut a diamond, and we tried so hard to make sure that none of our sartorial choices were try-hard (easier said than done). We learned a trick or two from low-vibrational cool kids including Lisa Bonet and Aaliyah, who were both famously partial to round, wire-rimmed glasses.  

Were you an extra in Charlie’s Angels? You sure could’ve been, with a pair of Y2K-worthy shades such as these. The Dollger rimless rectangular shades are one of Amazon’s best-selling pairs with a 4.5-star average rating from over 3,000 reviews, and they come in multiple colorways ranging from “frosted tips” to “Baby Bottle Bop.”   

We get it, we get it—you have David Hockney on speed dial, and only go to the movies to catch a film that’s post-post-post French New Wave cinema. You also need these über-round sunglasses to accommodate your artistic tunnel vision. 

Well, you're a firestarter. We never forgot the glimmer of your tongue ring, but it’s the way you rocked those Oakley sunglasses that truly made our heart go pitter-patter at Glastonbury ‘95. There are two extremes in which Oakleys thrive on the sartorial spectrum: Bass Pro Shops/PBR-drinking uncle, and crusty-balloon-pants-ed cyberpunk. We prefer to have one leg in both, and a fresh pair of frosty Oakleys is just the ticket. Catch us in the iconic brand’s new Plazma Sanctuary Collection frames, or in its classic Crankshaft sunnies, which have garnered a 4.5-star rating on Amazon. 

We swerve for sunnies that make us look like we know how to parallel park a U-Haul (we don’t) and nothing says “gifted grifter” better than a pair of tinted shades. These sets are worthy of The Dude himself, and boast a whole gamut of mustard-hued lenses in aviator and square-shaped frames. 

We could go into heavy detail about why these Balenciaga shades are so perfect, from the slightly raised rectangular shape to the fact that they’re 57% off, but you weren’t born yesterday. You were born today, from a 3D printer, and just started speaking in tongues about bitcoin and lizard people (and we never stopped listening).  

… But make it fashion. The French brand Jacquemus is at its best when it plays with proportion and form, and this time it took a playful page straight from Super Mario Bros with these pixelated lookin’ shades. Plus, they’re currently 20% off.

Finally, sunglasses that feel like a portable face pillow. These wild, feather boa-esque shades are lined in a fuzzy faux fur that rolled right out of our lucid dreams; so you can look like Kim Kardashian, for a fraction of the price.

Remember that season two episode of Euphoria where Alexa Demie’s character was floating in a pool—sorry, babysitting—in vintage Jean Paul Gaultier shades? King shit. The real 58-5201 archive sunnies are available to purchase online, but you’ll find us saving more money for happy hour negronis and impulse plane tickets by going for this pair of similarly steampunk-gothic dupes instead. 

If you’re trying to look like a leading man, or maybe a 60s-era James Bond, then the unequivocal answer is Oliver Peoples. This classic brand has been the favorite of cool-people and celebs for decades, so it’s safe to say these will never go out of style.

Stay shady.

The Rec Room staff independently selected all of the stuff featured in this story. Want more reviews, recommendations, and red-hot deals? Sign up for our newsletter.