Elton John is one of popular music's most famed wearers of spectacles. Having started his career performing in pubs from the age of 15, he worked his way up the music industry ladder by playing in bands with his friends, eventually becoming a staff songwriter for DJM Records. On gaining a record contract in 1970, at the age of 23, his live performance became bigger and more flamboyant. Backed by a large catalogue of ballads and piano rock, his scintillating stage shows involved him performing in wild costumes, for which he commissioned spectacles to match.

This pair of sunglasses, with black plastic round frames and brown-tint lenses, were designed for French designer spectacle house Mikli. Mikli began in 1978 and continue to this day, creating handmade glasses and accessories that are popular with celebrities worldwide. This pair were designed for Mikli by the French fashion designer Claude Montana. Montana started his own company in 1979 and designed his first line for men in 1981. He favoured aggressive shapes and bold lines, and he was known jokingly in the 1980s as the "King of Shoulder Pads". However, his aggressive style went out of favour in the mid 1990s, and The House of Montana folded in 1997.