The Most Iconic Sunglasses in Hip-Hop
Written by SOURCE on August 13, 2020
Originally released in 1990, the Cartier C Décor is the French luxury brand’s most influential silhouette. Recently, the late Pop Smoke, a fan of the sunglasses, created a demand for the style. The glasses are rimless, which gives the wearer the option to customize the lenses to be any color or shape.
“Back in the day, I don’t think that’s what Cartier intended, for people to customize all of their glasses like everybody is doing today,” says Julz, who typically sells “Big Cs” anywhere from $1,250 to $2,000. “Having rimless glasses allows you to literally make a one-of-one creation from Cartier. Really, you’re buying just temples and a nose bridge.”
However, no two C Décor frames are the same. The “Big C” Décor frames feature thin temples that boast a large “C” to hold the lenses in place—similar Cartier frames with smaller Cs are older models from the ‘90s. According to Vintage Julz, the “Big C” Décors have been underlooked until now.
“I mean, the wires have always been just something light. Now they’re becoming a high ticket item. But back in the day I used to practically give them away,” says Julz, who credits the current popularity of “Big Cs” to Pop Smoke. “It was never as coveted as it is today.”
Julz sold his first pair of “Big Cs” in 2014 to rapper Meek Mill, who ended up wearing them for a freestyle performance on Power 105.1 with DJ Clue. But the Detroit is the reason why Meek Mill and every other rapper in the game wears Cartiers today.
“I remember Meek Mill used to come here and hang out with one of our rappers named Dusty McFly,” says Joseph McFashion, the Executive Producer of Buffed Up, a Detroit-based comedy centered on the quest for an expensive pair of C Décor frames known as “White Buffs.” “Blade Icewood made it popular to put diamonds on The Woods. And Rich Ken made a song called “All White Buffies” that was big back in the day, too.”
Cartier’s presence in Detroit dates back to the ‘80s when working class car factory workers purchased them, and the late ‘90s, when members of the Black Mafia Family, a drug trafficking and money laundering organization, wore them. McFashion says the hype truly kicked off in the 2000s when local Detroit rappers like Rich Ken and Blade Icewood, began rocking the frames, which are also tied to violence in the city. The most popular models are the “Woods”—C Décor glasses with thick wooden temples—and the White Buffs—C Décor glasses that boast thick temples made out of white buffalo horn. Since there are no official Cartier stores in Detroit today, McFashion says the only way to attain a pair of White Buffs are through local jewelers like Gary Yee at Golden Sun Jewelery and resellers like Spencer Shapiro. And prices fluctuate depending on how white the Buffs are.
“If they have swirls or they’re not the purest white, you can get those for like a pretty decent price, like $2,200-$2,300. If they’re the whitest buffs, the jeweler might charge anywhere from $2,600-$2,700,” says McFashion, who also says the current demand for buffs has boosted the prices. “You might pay almost $4,000 around here if they’re really white.”
Recently, rappers like Lil Uzi Vert and Gunna have worn the iconic White Buffies. When McFashion was asked about the mainstream appeal of Cartiers outside of Detroit, he said he was happy to see his city’s culture get recognized.
“I feel like we’re leaving our impact on the industry now because Cartiers are something that started in Detroit, it was something that we kind of adopted as our own,” says McFashion. “We feel like a lot of people don’t even pay attention to Detroit. So when we see them wearing our fashion, we’re like, ‘Okay, they are looking at us.’”—Lei Takanashi
