T he opening credits of the 1969 film The Italian Job are hard to forget. The character Roger Beckerman — played by Rossano Brazzi — drives his tangerine-coloured Lamborghini Miura through the Italian Alps, taking terrifying bends with ease, barely slowing down to put on gold-rimmed wraparound sunglasses and light a cigarette ..
. But the still smouldering cigarette and sunglasses are all that remains of Beckerman following an explosive incident in a tunnel, after which they are crunched beneath the suave leather shoes of his killer. Thankfully that was not the end of the sunglasses — which are movie stars in their own right.
Years later Gareth Llewelyn, an entrepreneur with a background in technology, decided he wanted to own a pair just like Beckerman’s. “My mother took me to see The Italian Job ,” Llewelyn recalls. “I was a bit young to understand the plot, but the opening sequence and the amazing visual impact of this futuristic Lamborghini stayed with me.
” As did the sunglasses, which Llewelyn became determined to track down..
