EyeglassMaven
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Hi, I am Phyllis Lubarsky owner of Outer Vision (outervisionnyc.com) an optical shop established in 1978. I will be discussing different aspects of eyewear for all occasions over the next few weeks on the following topics: Shape, Size, Color, Fit, Trends, the ability to customize your eyewear, and then the different types of materials used in manufacturing eyewear and the other aspects of manufacturing a frame. Then the different types of lenses and materials and what different prescriptions call for as far as a quality lens. I only do high end lenses and frames as over time they will last and be the best. You only get one set of eyes and they are not the place to cheap out. I have many converts, they used to wear very pedestrian eyewear and once they are shown the light of high end eyewear they never look back.
You need to be informed as buying glasses may be a very hit or miss experience depending on where you go to purchase. If you go to a department store for Sunglasses remember usually the salespeople work on commission or some incentive to make the sale. They usually are not eyeglass experts thus they will sell you whatever they think you will buy whether it suits you or not. In the chain optical shops they too usually have incentives of some sort so they too will make the easy sale meaning they will sell you what they think you like regardless of the fit and the adaptability to your prescription. Will they take into account that your type of prescription needs a definitive base curve therefore you need a certain type of frame to accommodate it? I don’t think so….
If you go to a private optician that has 1 to 10 locations chances are you will encounter at least one person that knows what they are doing (that usually is the licensed optician aka ophthalmic dispenser) the other people in the shop will most probably be just salespeople with no optical experience other than if they have been doing optical sales for a while.
Let’s start with Shape:
Take a look at the shape of your face. Is it square? Round? Oval? Oblong? Trapezoidal? Strong jaw line? Soft jaw line? Do you have high cheekbones? Long nose? Wide bridge? No bridge? Do you have a wide temple to temple measurement? Narrow from temple to temple? Small face? Are your eyes close set or not? The basics you must discern if you are going to be your own stylist. Take a picture of yourself straight on or stand in front of a mirror and look at yourself straight on to determine your specific features. Remember no one has just a square face, for example they also have a type of bridge: wide, narrow, very often a broken bone from childhood which sticks out more on one side than the other, high bridge or low bridge or no bridge which is more common amongst Asian or Black people. You also need to determine whether you fall into the “off the rack” or “ready-to-wear” size of frames fitting you from side to side. Do you find that your face continues even though the frame has stopped? Take a measurement of the width and if you are over 145mm ( 5.75”) it will be very hard to find a frame that will fit you properly. Most men’s frames and sunglasses are not made larger than the 145mm and most regular glasses (meaning not sunglasses) are closer to 140mm. You don’t need to take out a ruler, just go into an optical shop and you will see for yourself that the frames/sunglasses don’t fit right. Another clue that you need to look for is the way the side piece (known as the temple or temple arm) fit. Are they are not quite long enough or are they too long and the tips come down too far or you feel like that could meet in the back of your head. I will be discussing at length each of these and many other facets that go into to fitting a frame correctly to your face.
So let’s begin by starting to identify and understand your face shape.
What I look for is a shape that compliments your basic face shape. They say the ideal face shape is oval and I agree as anyone with an oval face can wear almost any shape assuming they fit into the “regular” sizes and have a bridge with no particular issues. These people are lucky! Eyeglass shopping for them is a breeze for style and shape. For the rest of us we need to learn what our good features are and how to accentuate them and down play the not so good features. Just remember your face is 3 dimensional and all the aspects must be taken into account.
Square
If you have a square face the last thing you want is to put a square frame on it….remember if you have a square you don’t need to buy another. (It only accentuates the square. This is the starting place. Once you determine you are a square faced person you then determine what your bridge is, high, low, flat, broken bone or just regular…like Goldilocks, not too long, not too short, no breaks, not flat, not too high just right. Then determine your jaw line; strong or soft and your chin, is it strong or does it recede? All these features go into determining the frame shapes that will fit your face.
Next the size of your face, here you must be realistic and not afraid that you don’t fit the optical standard. More people than you would believe don’t fit the standard.
Round
The same basic rules apply from the section on Square, the last thing you want on a round face is a round frame. I don’t care what the fashion trend is you won’t look good in it. There are ways to be fashionable and trendy and look good doing it. I go back to my statement from square except for round; a round face does not need a round frame, again it keeps you from achieving the ideal shape for your face. The same caveats apply of bridge, jaw line, eye setting and size.
Oblong
An oblong face sort of resembles a football standing up. Usually it is a bit pointed at both the top and the chin and the rest is basically straight up and down. Adding in the nose, jaw, size aspects space between the eyes
Trapezoidal
If this is the shape of your face where the lower portion is wider than the upper portion, no worries there is a fix. Again no one has just a 2 dimensional face and all the aspects discussed apply here too.
You need to be informed as buying glasses may be a very hit or miss experience depending on where you go to purchase. If you go to a department store for Sunglasses remember usually the salespeople work on commission or some incentive to make the sale. They usually are not eyeglass experts thus they will sell you whatever they think you will buy whether it suits you or not. In the chain optical shops they too usually have incentives of some sort so they too will make the easy sale meaning they will sell you what they think you like regardless of the fit and the adaptability to your prescription. Will they take into account that your type of prescription needs a definitive base curve therefore you need a certain type of frame to accommodate it? I don’t think so….
If you go to a private optician that has 1 to 10 locations chances are you will encounter at least one person that knows what they are doing (that usually is the licensed optician aka ophthalmic dispenser) the other people in the shop will most probably be just salespeople with no optical experience other than if they have been doing optical sales for a while.
Let’s start with Shape:
Take a look at the shape of your face. Is it square? Round? Oval? Oblong? Trapezoidal? Strong jaw line? Soft jaw line? Do you have high cheekbones? Long nose? Wide bridge? No bridge? Do you have a wide temple to temple measurement? Narrow from temple to temple? Small face? Are your eyes close set or not? The basics you must discern if you are going to be your own stylist. Take a picture of yourself straight on or stand in front of a mirror and look at yourself straight on to determine your specific features. Remember no one has just a square face, for example they also have a type of bridge: wide, narrow, very often a broken bone from childhood which sticks out more on one side than the other, high bridge or low bridge or no bridge which is more common amongst Asian or Black people. You also need to determine whether you fall into the “off the rack” or “ready-to-wear” size of frames fitting you from side to side. Do you find that your face continues even though the frame has stopped? Take a measurement of the width and if you are over 145mm ( 5.75”) it will be very hard to find a frame that will fit you properly. Most men’s frames and sunglasses are not made larger than the 145mm and most regular glasses (meaning not sunglasses) are closer to 140mm. You don’t need to take out a ruler, just go into an optical shop and you will see for yourself that the frames/sunglasses don’t fit right. Another clue that you need to look for is the way the side piece (known as the temple or temple arm) fit. Are they are not quite long enough or are they too long and the tips come down too far or you feel like that could meet in the back of your head. I will be discussing at length each of these and many other facets that go into to fitting a frame correctly to your face.
So let’s begin by starting to identify and understand your face shape.
What I look for is a shape that compliments your basic face shape. They say the ideal face shape is oval and I agree as anyone with an oval face can wear almost any shape assuming they fit into the “regular” sizes and have a bridge with no particular issues. These people are lucky! Eyeglass shopping for them is a breeze for style and shape. For the rest of us we need to learn what our good features are and how to accentuate them and down play the not so good features. Just remember your face is 3 dimensional and all the aspects must be taken into account.
Square
If you have a square face the last thing you want is to put a square frame on it….remember if you have a square you don’t need to buy another. (It only accentuates the square. This is the starting place. Once you determine you are a square faced person you then determine what your bridge is, high, low, flat, broken bone or just regular…like Goldilocks, not too long, not too short, no breaks, not flat, not too high just right. Then determine your jaw line; strong or soft and your chin, is it strong or does it recede? All these features go into determining the frame shapes that will fit your face.
Next the size of your face, here you must be realistic and not afraid that you don’t fit the optical standard. More people than you would believe don’t fit the standard.
Round
The same basic rules apply from the section on Square, the last thing you want on a round face is a round frame. I don’t care what the fashion trend is you won’t look good in it. There are ways to be fashionable and trendy and look good doing it. I go back to my statement from square except for round; a round face does not need a round frame, again it keeps you from achieving the ideal shape for your face. The same caveats apply of bridge, jaw line, eye setting and size.
Oblong
An oblong face sort of resembles a football standing up. Usually it is a bit pointed at both the top and the chin and the rest is basically straight up and down. Adding in the nose, jaw, size aspects space between the eyes
Trapezoidal
If this is the shape of your face where the lower portion is wider than the upper portion, no worries there is a fix. Again no one has just a 2 dimensional face and all the aspects discussed apply here too.
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