The right eyeglass frame will accentuate the inherent appeal of your face shape, while masking the disadvantages. Ergo, choosing the right one might just increase the chances of turning more heads, bringing the best out of your features. Diamond-shaped faces are the rarest of all, while oval ones are considered to be the most perfectly balanced.The type of eyeglass frame you wear, significantly affects your look and the first impression you make.
Contact lenses are preferred by most people nowadays, but frames are still in vogue. They are no longer just a medical necessity, but also a fashion accessory in their own right. The type of frames you wear, say a lot about you. They can tell whether you are conservative or a radical, a person with a casual approach or you mean business.
Be it your reading glasses or anti-glare glasses for your workplace use, you can choose stylish ones. As they say, one sees the world in a different way, through a new lens. Similarly, the frame, if chosen corrctly, can change the way the world looks at you.
Being a bespectacled guy, I have gone through my share of badly chosen frames, which didn’t really suit me that well. It takes a little time and a lot of trial and error, to acquire a taste for fashion and choose the right frames, according to your face shape and personality. This article is meant to cut down your share of bad choices, through a scientific approach to choosing a frame, that is the aesthetically right choice for your face shape.
Take a Selfie, Know Your Face Shape
So this is a very short primer for those of you who are not sure about what face shape you have. This problem can be easily solved with a selfie. Take a front-facing selfie and print it out. Using a marker, draw two dots on the outer edge of your forehead, two on either side of your jawline, and two on the edge of your cheekbones. Now see what kind of shape the dots make. Most faces are either oval, round, oblong, triangular, square, or diamond faces.
How to Choose Frames for Different Face Shapes
Correctly choosing eyeglass frames for a particular face shape, is a matter of aesthetics, style, and well, geometry. One can enhance the natural beauty of a face or make up for the shortcomings, with a fashion accessory like a frame. Besides the shape, your skin shade, eye, and hair color will also play a role, along with your entire personality.
Here are three thumb rules from experienced fashion gurus, that may help by saving you the trouble of trying out every frame in the optician’s shop
- Let your eyeglasses compliment your best facial features.
- Let the frame shape be contrasting to your face shape.
- Let the size of the frame be in scale wise proportion, to your facial size.
People with oval faces are lucky, as they are the most well-balanced in terms of proportions. A chin that’s narrow in comparison to the forehead, is the prime feature of these faces. Primarily, the face is longer, than it’s wider. Some of the notable celebrities with this face shape are Charlize Theron, Tyra Banks, Adam Sandler, George Clooney, and Julia Roberts.
To maintain the natural balance of your oval-shaped face, go for a frame, which is wider than the widest part of your face. Oversized frames work best for you, along with walnut-shaped frames, which are neither too deep, nor too narrow. Go for a bold shape and play with color, as well as texture. Angular frames like butterfly and square, will also work for you.
Alternatively, you have the luxury of trying out different styles, like rimless, cat-eye, square, aviator, wayfarer, and wrap or shielded, as your facial shape allows it. Almost all styles suit you, but avoid going for frames that are too large or narrow.
Full cheeks, soft lines, coupled with a rounded chin; a round face is all curves without angles, with the width being almost same as the length. Think Drew Barrymore and Kate Winslet. You can compensate for the inherent roundness of the face, by using rectangular, narrow frames, with a clearly outlined bridge. They will make your face look thinner and longer, while widening your eyes. Make sure that the frame bottom is above the cheekbones.
The frames to be avoided are exaggerated round ones, that will reinforce the overall roundness, disturbing the contrasting balance that can be achieved by angular frames. Also, opt out of small frames.
An oblong-shaped face is significantly longer than its width. This is often coupled with a longish nose and a long straight cheek line. To sum up, it is longer than it is wider. The ultimate contrast for this shape will be provided by aviator type frames, whose squarishness can make the face look wider. One way of making the nose appear shorter is through the use of low bridges. Frames that grant more depth than width, through decorative temple styling, are also recommended.
Opt out of short frames or those that are narrow and rectangular. They are not going to offset the length of your face, but are only going to emphasize it.
A base-down triangular face has a wide chin, which tapers to a comparatively narrow forehead upwards. To make the forehead appear wider, one could try cat-eye shaped frames, with heavy colors and detailing in the top half. It is important that the frame length be wider than the jawline, to achieve the right balance. Avoid going for bottom heavy frames.
The base-up triangle faces have a wide top, which tapers down to a narrow chin. The width of the top part of the face could be balanced, by using frames which are wider at the bottom, with light colors or even rimless frames.
A square face is typified by a strong jawline, coupled with a broad forehead. To make this face look more long and soften its edges, one should try narrow round thin frame styles. Wider frames with less depth and narrow oval-shaped frames, are best suited for them. It is important that the frames have a width, that is slightly wider than the cheekbones. As far as possible, avoid square and angular frames, or those which drive attention towards the squarish chin.
Diamond-shaped faces are very rare.
They are characterized by high and broad cheekbones, which are narrow at the jaw and eye line. For these faces, a wide variety of frames are well-suited. The ideal frames for them are oval, rimless, cat-eye, or any frame with detailing and a pronounced brow line. Go for top-heavy frames, that particularly emphasize the cheekbones.
Opt out of narrow frames, as they will only bring out the narrowness of the eyes and won’t draw attention to the cheekbones as much.
These faces have a broad forehead that flows down to a narrow chin. Like the base-up triangle face, the right frames for the heart-shaped faces are the ones that draw away attention from the broad forehead. Our recommendation would be frames like the modified wayfarer shape, with a width that’s slightly greater than the forehead. Detailing in the lower portion will bring in balance.
Any frame that draws attention towards the broad forehead should be avoided. The chosen colors also matter a lot. Copper, amber, gold, orange, peach, warm blue, and red shades go well with warm skin tones. On the other hand, black, magenta, reddish brown, blue, pink, and amber go well with cooler tones.
A range of frames are now specially manufactured, taking face shapes into consideration. The points presented above are thumb rules at best. With all that said and done, take them as suggestions and choose whichever frame you like, irrespective of what the world thinks.
