Book review: cool shades: the history and meaning of sunglasses by Vanessa Brown

In Cool Shades: The History and Meaning of Sunglasses, Vanessa Brown explores the evolving concept of ‘cool’ by tracing the history and changing meaning of what she argues to be one of its most emblematic objects: sunglasses. While suggesting that the book’s eclectic range of examples at times risks overemphasising the significance of sunglasses, Ed Jones nonetheless praises it for showing how coolness and the objects seen to signify it have become central to contemporary constructions of identity, meaning and the self.