The sun is shining, the weather is sweet (or at least it was the day we wrote this)—so what better time to talk about yellow lenses? Yellow tinted lenses (along with their orange or red cousins) are a true Seen summer favourite—not only do they look top-notch, but they make the world look top-notch too—adding a certain cinematic aura to even the most humdrum of situations.
Here’s the history stuff. While they might conjure up 32 bit images of the millennium bug and computer hackers, yellow lenses have been around a fair bit longer than you might think—and all the way back in the 19th century they were prescribed by doctors to those with light sensitivity issues. Since then, they’ve always had a certain functional flavour—whether worn for medical or safety reasons.
While some of the claims around yellow lenses lean a little towards the pseudoscientific, one thing they certainly do is help add contrast and clarity. The yellow lenses filter out blue light and cut down on visual noise—giving shapes a crisper, clearer look. This is why they’re often used by cyclists and skiers (and those operating heavy machinery)—giving the wearer an extra edge in foggy or misty conditions. As a bit of an aside, this is also why military aviator shades have green lenses, cutting down glare without impacting sacrificing vision.
Anyway, back to yellow lenses—their knack for filtering blue lights means that they can make screens a bit easier on the eyes—helping to block out those 450 nm waves that we’re subjected to so much. Obviously remembering to take a break from your beloved screen and head out into the real world every now and again is even more effective, but yellow lenses do reduce the strain a little.
This functional stuff is obviously pretty important… but there’s another reason they’ve been a style staple for so long… they look dead good. From the Merry Pranksters of the ‘60s to the cyber-punks of the 90s, yellow lenses have always been a firm favourite with counter-cultural types thanks to their slightly left-of-centre appeal.Â
Perhaps one of their most famous advocates was Hunter S. Thompson, the freewheeling gonzo journalist who threw himself headfirst into his stories to create such off-the-wall classics as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Great Shark Hunt. His radical writing style was echoed in his ‘anything goes’ attitude to getting dressed, mixing Ivy League button-downs with technicolor sportswear, utilitarian fishing vests and bucket hats aplenty. His signature yellow-lensed aviators fit perfectly amongst this majestic jumble—functional, with serious flair.Â
Fast forward a few decades to Johnny Depp’s take on ‘the Good Doctor’ in Terry Gilliam’s kaleidoscopic adaptation of Fear and Loathing and those unique aviators with their tinted yellow lenses and ‘cigarette holder’ brow bar were there front and centre—the warped image of Depp and those shades on the film’s poster a true 90s bedroom classic. Whilst we’re on the subject, If you want the classic ‘bat country’ look, then look no further than the Jacques Marie Mage Hunter—Jerome Mage’s homage to Hunter’s iconic eyewear.
Thinking about it now, it seems like pretty much all the best films of the 90s featured at least one standout pair of tinted-lens shades. There was Spud’s chunky specs in Trainspotting, Walter’s aviators in Big Lebowski, Tyler Durden’s red wraparounds in Fight Club, Mickey Knox’s Lennon-esque teashades in Natural Born Killers or Autumn Moon’s bright yellow bug-eyes in the severely underwatched Made in Hong Kong. Tinted lenses were for the weirdos and the antiheroes—a radical choice for radical characters.Â
This extended to the music of the 90s too. The Prodigy’s Keith Flint was regularly snapped in white-framed, yellow-lensed cycling glasses that looked straight off the cover of a downhill mountain bike video, while Thom Yorke’s sleek wireframes were the perfect visual reflection of his band’s brand of IDM-influenced laptop rock.Â
All this history means that now there’s a lot to pull from, and wearing tinted lenses in the year 2025 can be a throwback to the ‘70s, an homage to the ‘90s or just a vision of now—or sometimes all three at the same time.Â
Take Kuboraum for instance—their chunky P8 shades are the perfect modern aviator, taking that classic shape right up to date with brightly coloured acetate and those lightly tinted lenses. The German brand’s Innerraum range features some equally exceptional tinted designs, with their super-limited 020 and 024 shades offering a slightly different take on the aviator shape—combining a sleek metal design with golden lenses to create the ideal festival frames.
Coblens are another new kid on the Seen block who are dab hands at this kind of thing. Renowned for their use of high-quality titanium, this brand use really subtle, ever-so-slightly tinted lenses to give their frames a really sophisticated look. Think of it like that ‘touch of fruit’ mineral water compared to double-concentrated cordial.Â
And no article about tinted sunglasses would be complete without a mention of Garrett Leight. The California brand offers a full spectrum of coloured lenses—taking influence from the unique hues of their home state with sun-soaked golds (as seen on their Fonda Sun frames) and mellow blues (like on the Clune Suns).Â
If you’re looking for an alternative to black shades this summer, you’re in the right place. See our favourite yellow tinted sunglasses here.
