Persol #649 sunglasses have been continually handmade in Italy since 1957, they were originally designed for Turin tram-drivers but quickly caught on and by the time Marcello Mastroianni wore them in the film “Divorce, Italian Style” the design had become a pop culture icon in its own right.
Persol still makes the 649 to the original specifications, including the unique “Victorflex” flexible bridge and patented acetate frames.
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
