The South Korean eyewear label Gentle Monster, launched a “Gentle High School” campaign for its 2024 Optical collection, issuing everyone an AI-generated student ID with a face-tuned picture of yourself with glasses on—ideally a frame that fits you best. There’s a saying among the fashion fellows that goes like this, “If you want to know who is the most fashionable person in the room, find the one with the best pair of glasses/sunglasses.” Eyewear is, without a doubt, an accessory that can either make or break a look and the most challenging part has to be finding the perfect pair—yes the Bayonetta is geekily adorable, but the line between looking Hadid-hot or your stern English teacher is, in fact, utterly thin. So with that, it’s tantamount to get you fitted with glasses for your face shape.
Truth is, it’s common to have faces that are a mix of various shapes and most often or not, cannot be narrowly defined, hence the goal here is to find the closest shapes or features like cheekbones and jaws and work around them. While we believe everyone should wear what they like regardless of shapes, sizes and colours, especially for those who mastered the art of eyewear; here is a beginner guide for those who are scratching their heads in the optical stores or are new to the eyewear realm.
Keep reading to discover the glasses for your face shape.
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Round Faces
Perhaps one of the most common face shapes, round faces usually have equal width and length and softer curves—hairline and jawline. The key here is to put on the edges, literally. Angular shapes with defined and clean line can sharpen and lengthen a round face. The boxy square, rectangular, cat-eye or even geometrical ones if you are daring with your choices, complements the round faces well. We would also suggest to get a full rim and do not afraid to get a thicker frame to highlight the edges on the glasses.
Oval Faces
An oval face has a balanced proportions, hence often labelled as the “ideal” face shapes, i.e. the Rihanna’s face. With a comparably narrow face width, it gives you a stamp of approval to pull a bolder look with an (ridiculously) oversized frames. Since oval faces are long, a wider frame will also create the illusion of a shorter midface. Add that 60s inspired Gucci frames into cart.
Square Faces
Broader forehead, pointed cheeks and a flat jaw, a square face is more angular. In this case, a round or an oval frames will sit better on your face to counterbalance the sharp features. A thinner, semi-rimmed or even rimless frames can also add a soft contrast to a square face. Go for a cat-eye, aviator or even a classic Navigator frame if you need a glamourous choice as the upswept design draw the attention to the cheekbones and away from the jawline.
Heart-shaped Faces
If your cheekbones are almost as wide as your forehead and tapered jaw, chances are, you have an inverted triangle face; but if you have all the aforementioned plus a widow’s peak hairline, welcome aboard to the heart-shape train. Again, the proportions come into play. The trick here is to balance out the varying widths on your face. The solutions is to get the cat-eye or trapezoid to sharpen the wide forehead, a round pair to soften the cutting jaw, or a semi-rimmed that divert attention from your cheek and also elongate your jaw.
Diamond-shaped Faces
An opposite of the hearts is the diamonds—narrow forehead, pointed chin and a broader cheeks. Typically, round rims set off the angles so get your hands on the round, oval or even one with winged eye corner like the cat-eye or butterfly frame does wonder to your face.