Peter Capaldi Sunglasses
A Look Back at the Controversial ‘Sonic Sunglasses’ Worn by Doctor Who
The so-called sonic sunglasses worn by the 13th Doctor Who Star Peter Capaldi caused quite a controversy when they were first aired back in season 9. After all, replacing The Doctor’s trusty Sonic Screwdriver, something that’s been around since season 2, is quite a bold move by the TV series producers. I’m not one to question decisions made by those who make film and TV but as someone who stopped watching after David Tenant departed our screens, I was shocked, to say the least.
Anyhow, I’m not here to ramble on regarding whether it was the right or wrong decision. That’s the job of the Whovians. My job is to correctly identify the exact brand of sunglasses worn by Peter Capaldi and in the case of the Sonic Sunglasses, this probably won’t be too difficult. The first thing to note is that these sunglasses are a classic pair of Wayfarers. These styles have been popular since at least the 1980s with many films, including The Blues Brothers (1980) and Risky Business (1983) featuring them throughout film history. These sunglasses styles never go out of fashion and it makes sense a time-traveling timelord would choose them as his ‘go-to’ pair.
Sonic Sunglasses: Identifying the Brand
The Wayrafer style of sunglasses was first developed by Ray-Ban back in the 1950s and although they no longer hold the patent for the design, are still the biggest manufacturer of this style. Most news sources talking about the infamous Sonic Sunglasses automatically, suggest the pair worn by Capaldi are from the brand Ray-Ban. It seems they were not wrong, although the production team went through the troubles of scrubbing off the standard ‘Ray-Ban’ logo that’s usually plastered on the glasses lens, they didn’t do the same for the embossed logos located on the edge of the glasses arm. The image below shows Ray-Ban’s logo showing its face in this image of Capaldi in this
Capaldi has also been seen outside of TV wearing a pair of Ray-Ban’s and it’s clear they are his preferred frames of choice. It’s hard to say how much influence Capaldi had in deciding on the style of sunglasses used in Doctor Who, but considering his love of the frames outside of the show, it’s most likely a fair bit. Ray-Ban is one of the most popular sunglasses brands in the world and still dominates markets today. Capaldi wears a pair of Classic Wayfarers in an all-black finish. If you’re looking to get your hands on a pair you can visit their official website using the link here. You can also view the full range of Ray-Ban Sunglasses on Amazon here.
