Emmanuel Macron’s £575 aviator sunglasses drove the shares of their maker almost 28% higher after his look during a speech at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos went viral online.
The surge added around £3.1million (€3.5 million) to the company’s market capitalisation as fans rushed to buy the shades – briefly crashing the firm’s website.
Memes, comments and speculation over Macron’s appearance flooded social media, with countless references to the 1986 movie Top Gun starring Tom Cruise.
The sunglasses were later identified as the Pacific S 01 model made by iVision Tech, which owns French high-end eyewear brand Henry Jullien.
The glasses retail for £575 (€659) on the company’s website.
This ‘certainly created a wow effect on the stock’, iVision Tech CEO Stefano Fulchir said.
Macron’s office later said the French president wore sunglasses during his indoor speech to protect his eyes due to a burst blood vessel, though it did not confirm the brand.
But Fulchir said he could clearly recognise the Henry Jullien glasses, adding that he had personally sent the model to Macron in 2024.
The Milan-listed shares rose nearly 6% on Wednesday, after having been up almost 28% at one point earlier in the day, before being automatically halted from trading.
They briefly resumed trading around 11:15 GMT on Thursday before being halted again, and were on track for their highest one-day jump on record.
Even US President Donald Trump commented on the shades, quipping ‘I watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses. ‘What the hell happened?’ during his own speech at the annual meeting in Davos on Wednesday.
Sporting aviator sunglasses to hide an eye condition, Macron told Davos officials the world was facing ‘a shift towards a world without rules’, warning that international law was being ‘trampled underfoot’.
He later criticised what he called ‘imperial ambitions’ and said Europe should not hesitate to deploy tools at its disposal to protect its interests amid rising trade threats from the US.
