Chain Shield Sunglasses — Black

Chanel Chain Shield Sunglasses — Black
Karl Lagerfeld took over creative direction at Chanel in 1983 and spent the next four decades synthesizing Coco Chanel's house codes with whatever the moment demanded. His early '90s era at Chanel is widely considered one of the most celebrated periods in the brand's history — the supermodels, the logos, the chains as ornament — and these shield sunglasses from the Fall/Winter 1992 runway sit at the center of that vocabulary. The braided leather chain appliqué running along the brow line is a direct reference to the chains on Chanel's iconic handbags: the house's most recognizable hardware translated onto the face. Rihanna wore them in the 2000s and they have not stopped circulating since. Cut in black plastic with an oversized shield silhouette and a horizontal black-leather-and-gold chain detail running across the top of the frame. The shield reads more architectural than sporting — a single curved lens face rather than two separate eye openings — with the chain appliqué as the defining visual gesture. Both temples carry the Chanel signature. Made in Italy. The piece is in very good vintage condition: one temple closes slightly crooked when folded (not noticeable when worn), and the sunglasses arrive in a Chanel case from a later era, not the original. A documented archive piece. Lagerfeld's Fall 1992 chain shields are one of the cleaner expressions of his '90s Chanel vocabulary — house hardware translated as ornament, supermodel-era cinematic, and the kind of object that sits in a serious collector's archive rather than a casual rotation. For the buyer who reads vintage Chanel as canon, not as costume.