Plenty of things can shape fashion trends. Whether it’s celebrity style, music, or globalization, countless factors can come together to determine what we believe is great to wear in the moment. However, there’s only one that continues to expand its influence on the fashion world: video games.
The digital character design involved in video game development allows for virtually boundless creativity when it comes to whipping up various aesthetics, making video games the perfect source of style inspiration and new trends. Even major fashion brands like Lacoste are collaborating with franchises like Minecraft to release dedicated collections inspired by those designs, which are proving to be especially popular among gamers and non-gamers looking to add more unique and themed pieces to their wardrobes for both casual wear and cosplay.
The same goes for accessories, with digital eyewear taking the cake as one of the biggest factors influencing eyeglasses trends. In fact, many take their eyewear inspiration from video characters made iconic by their signature specs:
Gordon Freeman
When it comes to silent protagonists, Gordon Freeman from Half-Life reigns supreme. He’s a research scientist thrust into less-than-ideal circumstances: after accidentally opening a portal to another dimension, he’s forced to fight off the slew of aliens that come his way.
The everyday nature of his character makes him immediately relatable, something that’s bolstered by the fact that he’s known for pairing his futuristic yet necessary full-body armor with specs that look like they’ve come straight out of Ray-Ban’s collection of men’s eyeglasses. His angular frames look eerily similar to the RB5228 Optics, a notably versatile pair of black, rectangular specs that you or someone you know have probably already worn in real life. That’s made Freeman more than just a relatable character—in playing Half-Life, you can easily imagine yourself picking up a crowbar and battling interdimensional enemies—because his signature glasses make him an even easier and more popular video game character to dress up as during cosplay conventions.
Kazuhira Miller
Metal Gear Solid is one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, so much so that its third installment is getting a remake that’s set to release this year. The game is also popular for having bespectacled characters, with the most famous being Metal GearREX chief engineer Hans Emmerich—better known as Otacon. With all the fuss about Otacon’s specs, however, people often overlook another character who wears them and actually needs to: Kazuhira Miller. Miller canonically incurs pretty serious eye issues in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, including photophobia (light sensitivity) and cataracts. After being kidnapped and subsequently rescued, he’s seen wearing tinted glasses to ease the pain and discomfort those conditions are known to cause. These became so popular that game developer Konami ended up collaborating with J.F. Rey Eyewear Design to release a full collection of glasses and sunglasses inspired by Metal Gear Solid V. The release included the tinted pair worn by Miller, further cementing the accessory as crucial to his character. They’ve even been worn by his voice actor, Robin Atkin Downes!
Bayonetta
This character’s impact on fashion probably needs little explanation, especially since she’s so well-associated with her specs that there’s now a trend in women’s eyeglasses named after her. In early 2024, it girls like Bella Hadid suddenly began wearing super-slim, rectangular frames, kickstarting the Bayonetta or “office siren” glasses trend. That probably has to do with the fact that the video game Bayonetta was released in the early 2000s, when this style of eyewear was most popular. As such, the titular character and witch Bayonetta had these frames as part of her character design. With the game winning multiple accolades by the end of 2009, it easily slipped into public consciousness, prompting an immediate connection between these Y2K glasses and Bayonetta herself when the former came back into fashion last year. Today, popular retailers like GlassesUSA continue to categorize their selections of feminine rectangular specs under the label “Bayonetta glasses,” showing just how impactful Bayonetta’s character design has been on fashion as a whole.
