Persol

Giuseppe Ratti began making glasses for aviators and racing drivers in Turin in 1917, and the name he later gave them, Persol, comes from per il sole, 'for the sun'. The flexible Meflecto temple and the silver Supreme Arrow hinge became house signatures, and the folding 714, worn by Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair, made Persol a film-star label. Now part of EssilorLuxottica, it still makes its acetate frames in Italy.