You know those articles that tell you to match your glasses or sunglasses frames to your face shape? Rectangular frames for oval faces, cat-eyes for trapezoidal faces, all that stuff? Of course you do. They are everywhere and if you’ve ever actually read one and tried to use the advice they give IRL, you know that they are completely useless. Who the heck has a diamond-shaped face anyway? I mean, really! Change you hairstyle or even just the tilt of your head and you can go from oval to round to heart-shaped in an instant. It’s all a bunch of nonsense is what it is.
There has to be a better way, right? You be there is! The Daily sat down with eyewear couturier Tom Davies — who creates bespoke frames for stars like Angelina Jolie, Henry Cavill, and Brad Pitt — to find out what really makes the perfect pair of glasses. Spoiler alert: it has absolutely nothing to do with the supposed shape of your face.
Angelina Jolie in bespoke Tom Davies Sunglasses in “The Tourist.”
What is the most important factor people should take into consideration when selecting their glasses or sunglasses?
It’s all about the brow line. Nothing else matters nearly as much. Look to have the top of the frame match your brow line. You don’t want to see your eyebrows through the lens. You don’t want your eyebrows coming out at odd angles to the top of the frames either. Try to have the frame track along the line of your brow just slightly cutting through. As this helps bring symmetry to the face and symmetry is beauty.
Why are brows so much more important than face shape?
The brow line defines almost every part of your face. It is a key feature on your face, as the brow line ultimately follows your hair line as well and a lot of people end up shaping their hair subconsciously based on their brown line. For example, in my experience, ladies with arched eyebrows tend to have a side part, while those with round “rainbow” eyebrows tend to like their hair tied back or center-parted. People with flatter brows tend to have a fringe.
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- (Tom Davies)
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- (Tom Davies)
So, when picking a frame, work from the brow line first. People with arched brows will look good in round frames but for those with flat brows, square frames tend to work best. Often, when I’m customizing frames for people, I might want to give a certain look, i.e. their face might seem to suit a square frame but in they want a round frame. So I can take a round frame and flatten just the top of the frame to match the brow line. You can make almost any frame look good as long as you follow this rule.
What is another common mistake people make when shopping for eyewear?
Not investing enough time in getting great eyewear in the first place. Most people spend an average of seven minuets choosing something they will wear for years, so it is really no wonder that so many people generally dislike wearing their glasses.
(Tom Davies)
But people spend just as little time selecting their sunglasses and love wearing them all the time.
Sunglasses block out about 30 percent of the face, hiding lines and signs of aging while also creating the illusion of greater facial symmetry. It,s harder to do this with optical frames for obvious reasons, but this is where bespoke comes in. Small, subtle changes to the lines of the frame to make it fit naturally with your features can have a dramatic effect on how you look. Selecting a style you like is easy, but finding that frame in the color you also like is slightly harder. Then having it fit you perfectly can require a lot of searching or luck. If you want the lines of the frames to balance perfectly to your natural features to bring out optical symmetry, you would need to get a bespoke frame.
That’s quite a luxury.
Your eyewear defines you. This is your face, and it is so important. Finally, I’m often told a bespoke Tom Davies frame is “better than a face lift”. I have to agree.
Eyewear designer Tom Davies
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