guest post: the glasses style war;

guest post: the glasses style war;

July 5, 2012 · by · in

A wee thing about blogging: it’s not uncommon to write something and forget all about it – or, more specifically, forget that even if a post is buried in the archives it could still pop up should a random surfer key in the correct search terms. So it was that when laser vision correction specialists Ultralase dropped me a line and asked if I was still interested in laser eye surgery it took me a couple of minutes to figure out exactly what they were talking about.

I mean, five years later it’s not as if I’m any closer to being able to afford the procedure – and I’ve been fair scunnered by a particularly mis-judged advertising campaign from one of Ultralase’s competitors that appeared to liked the procedure to having the back of your retina smashed with a tennis racket. Also, in the interim one of the self-portraits I posted on Flickr years ago got linked on some text-only “GWG” forum. Sure, the idea was unsavoury – but think of the page views!

“That’s fine!” Ultralase chimed. “We’ll write you something anyway!” And I agreed, because it gave me an excuse to post a super hawt picture of Tina Fey at the top of this post.

They may not have changed my mind – yet; but they’ve certainly given me some decent advice to bear in mind when shopping for my much-needed next pair.

Glasses. To some, they’re an indispensable part of geek chic cool; to others they’re a constant annoyance that make you look ten years older than you are. And then there are those of us that just need them to see. So how can you decide whether to wear your specs with pride, even working them into your overall style, or cut your losses and go with contacts or even laser eye surgery?

There’s no doubt that glasses just work for some people. Gok Wan, Tina Fey, Myleene Klass – even David Beckham can rock the specs without looking too nerdy. But for every Jonny Depp, there’s a Justin Bieber: specs just aren’t for everyone, although you can help yourself by following a few simple rules.

Generally speaking, the trick is to pick frames that contrast with the shape of your face. A round face can be made to look thinner and longer with angular narrow frames, while oval faces should choose something wider. There are nearly as many face types as there are frame types, so you should be able to find something that suits: try to keep the frames in proportion with the size of your face, and matching frame colour with eye colour works well too!

If you decide glasses just don’t work for you, there are always contacts. Since they’re nearly invisible, you don’t need to worry about making them part of your look – but depending on your prescription, they’re not always suitable for tasks like reading and using computers, and you may find you need to switch between specs and contacts anyway.

Overall, it’s all about finding what suits you best and what you’re comfortable wearing. If you think you can pull off the sexy secretary or cute geek look, go for it – but it shouldn’t be the main reason for deciding whether or not to wear glasses.

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