In 1976, the BBC visited British painter David Hockney at his studio for an edition of cultural magazine show The Book Programme. The segment opens with the artist and a colleague discussing plans for a new work, soundtracked by a clipped, RP voice-over. “Hockney dyes his hair yellow and wears gig lamps,” the voice says. “A treat, really, since these days painters seem to look like anyone else.”

On a practical level, sunglasses are there to help you see. In terms of filtering out glare, but also harmful UV rays. However, they’re also about how you look. And it would be disingenuous on our part to turn a blind eye to part of the appeal of shades. They have the power to make us appear cool.

People tend to praise Toy Story for its animation. And fair enough – in 1995, the gleam on Buzz’s helmet did look like witchcraft. But strip away the pixels and what you’re left with is the finest ensemble comedy of the decade: a workplace sitcom that happened to be set in a toy box.

The breakthrough moment for the bikini came at Piscine Molitor in Paris – that sleek, soulful, al fresco pool in the 16th arrondissement where the jazz age is still alive and well. It was there, in 1946, that the two-piece was debuted to “ooh la las”. The same moment for men came in 1968. The Swimmer, Eleanor and Frank Perry’s surreal big-screen adaptation of John Cheever’s mysterious story, catapulted men’s swimwear into the mainstream as the world and its mores changed in a spectacular explosion of liberation. The old rule book was ripped up. No more staid conventions. Burt Lancaster, its lead, called it “Death Of A Salesman in swimming trunks”. He spent most of the film wearing a pair in his bizarre quest to swim home via all the pools in a New England town.

In 1976, the BBC visited British painter David Hockney at his studio for an edition of cultural magazine show The Book Programme. The segment opens with the artist and a colleague discussing plans for a new work, soundtracked by a clipped, RP voice-over. “Hockney dyes his hair yellow and wears gig lamps,” the voice says. “A treat, really, since these days painters seem to look like anyone else.”

On a practical level, sunglasses are there to help you see. In terms of filtering out glare, but also harmful UV rays. However, they’re also about how you look. And it would be disingenuous on our part to turn a blind eye to part of the appeal of shades. They have the power to make us appear cool.