10 Sunnies You Can Afford to Lose at a Festival

Photo: Kim Lucian

Photo: Kim Lucian

If you've never lost or broken a pair of sunglasses at a music festival, you deserve some kind of award. For the rest of the population, sacrificed sunnies are part of the cost of jamming out in a field for a weekend.

While it may be tempting to bring your favorite shades to your favorite festival, it's not worth the risk of losing those $500 Dior frames. The solution? Cheap-o alternatives from Amazon.

My go-to brand for this specific purpose is called GAMT, which I think is named to create confusion with GANT. (The font on the cases looks shockingly similar— par for the course since most of their styles look exactly like the $400–$600 styles you can find at Saks or Barney's.) All of these under-$20 options below are available via Prime, so you still have time to get them before Coachella if you choose one-day shipping. 

Metal-Framed, Color Lensed Glasses, $14.90 You can thank Instagram's most popular person, Selena Gomez, for the red lenses that you'll see everywhere this summer. (Selena's are plastic Coach Badlands.) For a wire-frame/red lense combo try these. I have them in gold, and people stop me to ask about them all the time.

Rimless Wayfarers, $11.90 Several brands have dabbled in this look: Illesteva, Retrosuperfuture, Super. They double as a mirror on-the-go, which is awesome, but they run wide. Check the measurements!

 

 

Pink Marble Retro Frames, $13.90 Most of Amazon's cute/cheap sunglasses are pretty blatant Dior copies, but these look more like Miu Miu. Either way, they're hundreds less than the real deal.

 

Polarized Round Sunglasses for Men, $13.90 Chanel did this design about three years ago, but it still looks relevant. It also comes in single-tone options, if you're not digging the contrast gold. The "for men" indication just means they run wide. Check the measurements.

 

 

Metal Frame Aviators, $12.90 Colored lenses are way hot right now, but the trend never lasts long. If you stop loving this Coke-bottle green pair, at least you didn't spend much. 

 

Pilot Style Metal Aviator Glasses, $16.90 Another Dior-ish option, but available in more colors. Note that this one comes in two lens widths, and some of those colors/widths come with free returns. 

Round Vintage Oversized Frames, $11.90 These speckled glasses are cute, but the best part is probably that the Amazon description has a typo, so they're listed as "mental frames". Just how mental? That's really up to you. 

 

 

Cateye Polarized Glasses, $13.90 You've gotta appreciate the irony of this Dior So Real style knockoff. Even people who own the real "So Reals" can't tell the difference, except the "polarization" on these is kinda awful and makes it hard to see in bright light. But they'll work in a pinch if you want decoys for your Diors.

 

 

Retro Sunnies, $6.90 At less than $7, can you afford to skip this pink zebra pair? I think not. If pink isn't your thing, there are a couple black options with colored mirrored lenses.

Retro Cut-Out Cateyes, $13.90 A variation on thinner, metal-framed Fendis, these are lightweight and Insta ready for your #festivalstyle posting. Not all the colors are available via Prime, so check the shipping time frame before ordering.