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Statement Sunglasses for Summer That You Can Buy on Memorial Day Sale

My philosophy on sunglasses is simple: They must be big. So big that they cover half of my face. And they must be jet black.

I describe this aesthetic as “rich white republican grandma on her fifth martini, sitting in the backyard her family’s estate in Connecticut and watching her grandson Chip play polo.” Do I know what all those words mean? I sure do not! I don’t even know if one plays polo on the grass to begin with. I have no idea how any of this this works. But I know this! When I put on sunglasses, I want you to think my Black gay ass is Nancy Reagan. Blue blood elite cosplay, I know that’s right.

There’s a high chance that you are going to shop this weekend, maybe. There’s an even higher chance that you’re going to daydream how hot you are going to look this summer, probably. And I know that we don’t know each other, but babe – you are going to look so fucking hot.

So! With that in mind! Here’s 10 sunglasses you can shop right now from Memorial Day sales (while still supporting queer indie media *wink *wink).

J.Crew

At J.Crew, you can take 50% off these sunglasses with the code SUMMER.

A white femme person with rust colored lipstick and a blonde bob wears oversized square sunglasses with both lenses and frames in a monotone tan color.

Cabana Oversized Sunglasses ($69.50)

A black masc person with dreadlocks in a messy top bun and a yellow shirt wears round glasses with a keyhole on the nose bridge, the glasses have dark lenses and a tan brown frame.

Bungalow Sunglasses ($69.50)

Madewell

Everything (everything) is 25% off at Madewell through May 30 with the code LONGWEEKEND.

Orange aviator sunglasses in a close up

Acetate Linford Aviator Sunglasses ($69.50)

Thin wire gold framed sunglasses with square grey lenses in a close up.

Fest Square Aviator Sunglasses ($69.50)

Urban Outfitters

Urban Outfitters has select summer items as 50% off through the long weekend. You can also get an extra 40% off already on-sale items.

A black woman with long braids in a grey sweater coat has on light blue square sunglasses with orange lenses.

Jojo Translucent Rectangle Sunglasses ($16)

A woman with brown skin, long dark hair, and an orange tank top has on dark green hexagon shaped sunglasses with thin gold frames.

Belinda Combination Hexagon Sunglasses ($16)

Nordstrom

Nordstrom’s Half-Yearly Sale has literally thousands of shit for up to to 65% off (applied to these sunglasses, that brings them down to $9 and $6, respectively. YES. NINE DOLLARS. SIX DOLLARS. THASSIT.)

A close up of pale orange-pink round sunglasses, monotone in frame and lenses.

BP Round Sunglasses ($15)
Purple square sunglasses with brown lenses, in a close up.

BP 52mm Rectangle Sunglasses ($15)

Old Navy

Old Navy promises that this weekend “the entire store is on sale!!!” which seems like a lofty promise if you ask me, but sure bud. (It is 60% off summer styles though, included these sunglasses that I want immediately.)

A light skinned brown woman in a striped tan tank top and long curly hair wears thin pink wireframe cat eye sunglasses with brown lenses

Pink Cat’s-Eye Sunglasses for Women ($16.99)

A black person with a shaved head smiles into the sun while wearing oversized dark sunglasses that are square on top and round on the bottom

Square-Frame Sunglasses ($16.99)

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Carmen Phillips

Carmen Phillips is Autostraddle's former editor in chief. She began at Autostraddle in 2017 as a freelance team writer and worked her way up through the company, eventually becoming the EIC from 2021-2024. A Black Puerto Rican feminist writer with a PhD in American Studies from New York University, Carmen specializes in writing about Blackness, race, queerness, politics, culture, and the many ways we find community and connection with each other.  During her time at Autostraddle, Carmen focused on pop culture, TV and film reviews, criticism, interviews, and news analysis. She claims many past homes, but left the largest parts of her heart in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, NY. And there were several years in her early 20s when she earnestly slept with a copy of James Baldwin’s “Fire Next Time” under her pillow. To reach out, you can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram, or her website.

Carmen has written 716 articles for us.

4 Comments

  1. I do love supporting queer indie media but does it have to be through fast fashion companies who have a habit of ripping off indigenous artists? I would love to see AS forging more meaningful relationships with women-owned, BIPOC-owned business. Or supporting more sustainable products. Let’s be the change!

    • Hi Babs! I appreciate your comment, and I just wanted to say that we definitely recognize that all choices about what we put on our bodies or how we adorn them is complicated, and there are no easy or “one size fits all solutions.”

      We do try highlight POC and women owned business (especially as a woman owned business with a Black Latina Editor-in-Chief, it’s something we take seriously) and when we do major shopping pushes, for example during the holiday season when we are writing multiple shopping guides a week, we always make sure to specifically make lists for small queer owned, women owned, POC owned businesses that make a large portion of their income during that time of the year. You’ll also see queer/women/POC Etsy shops mixed into our accessory and clothing guides, alongside larger brands. We recently did an entirely Etsy specific accessories list this spring, and as is the trend in all of Etsy, the majority of those small stores were woman owned.

      That said, we also recognize that “fast” vs “slow” fashion isn’t always a cut-and-dry solution (we dedicated an entire roundtable to one aspect of that, just this month: https://www.autostraddle.com/fat-femme-fashion-fast-fashion/)

      The other reality is.. well.. capitalism, and we are making an increase of short and hopefully light shopping content because we do make money when people purchase from them, in affiliate programing that isn’t always set up in the same ways with other small businesses. And also, yet another reality and truth is that people also click on stores they know. And not all small businesses are financially affordable, because the cost of production is high — but our readers are accessing our content at a variety of price points. So these are all competing factors at hand! And we have to be able to keep our lights on, as a small business ourself. Memorial Day Weekend sales are happening across the internet, and if people are going to shop them, we’d appreciate it if they also shopped them in a way that sustains our business, in exchange for a few jokes about my Nancy Reagan fantasies of course.

      That said, I can understand how Urban Outfitters in particular (and maybe another brand on this list that I am unaware of) has practices that we don’t all agree with. In those situations, you’re welcome not to buy the sunglasses.

      But if nothing else, I hope you can see that there’s always a lot of consideration and thoughtfulness behind our decisions, even if you don’t always agree with our conclusions. Thanks again for your comment.

      • Thank you, Carmen. I really do appreciate you taking the time to address those complexities. No doubt, it’s hard out here for the individual consumer, not to mention small businesses.

        It was indeed Urban Outfitter’s inclusion here that drew my ire. I know how influential AS is and you all use your powers for so much good – I hate to see corporate monsters (imo), staking a claim.

        Here’s to keeping the conversation going! And it’s a timely one, too, with Pride around the corner (cue all the marketing and merchandising!).

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