How to Choose the Right Sunglasses for Your Face Shape

Start with the widest part of your face

Pull your hair back and look in a mirror. Compare your forehead, your cheekbones and your jaw. Whichever is widest, or whether they all match, gives you most of what you need. Face shape is a rough guide and not a rule. We use it to cut a wall of frames down to a handful worth trying on.

The idea is simple. A frame that echoes your face can feel heavy, while a frame that contrasts with it tends to look balanced. Angular faces usually like softer lines. Soft faces usually like more structure.

Round and oval faces

A round face is about as wide as it is long, with a soft jaw and full cheeks. Frames with straight lines and sharp corners add definition here. Our square sunglasses and wayfarer styles are the first place we send round faces. Skip very small circular lenses, which repeat the curve of the face and can make it look rounder.

Oval faces are slightly longer than wide, with a gently curved jaw. Lucky you. Almost anything sits well. The one rule is proportion, so avoid frames far wider than your cheekbones. If you like curves, try the round sunglasses range and see how they feel. Oval faces can carry them without effort from the frame.

Square and heart-shaped faces

Square faces have a strong jaw and a forehead of similar width. Curves help. Round and oval lenses soften the corners, and aviators work well because the teardrop lens drops away from the brow instead of repeating the angle of the jaw. Thin metal rims keep the look light. Thick, boxy acetate on a square face can feel like too much of the same thing.

Heart-shaped faces are wider at the forehead and narrow toward the chin. You want a frame that carries a little weight low on the face. Aviators with a wider bottom edge do that, and so do lighter rims with a rounded lower line. Heavy top bars and bold brow lines pull attention upward, which is the opposite of what we want. A cat-eye frame can also suit a heart shape, as long as the upswept corners are modest and the lower rim has some depth.

Oblong faces

An oblong face is longer than it is wide, with a straight cheek line. The fix is to add width and depth. Choose frames with taller lenses, since short, narrow lenses make a long face look longer. Oversized round shapes and deep wayfarers fit well. Wide temples that reach toward the ears also help by breaking up the length.

Bridge position matters too. A low bridge can shorten the look of the nose, while a high one can lengthen it. Small detail, big difference.

One more point on the temples. If your head is wide, check that the arms do not squeeze behind the ears after an hour. A pair that pinches in the shop will pinch harder in the car. Better to find out now than after you have paid.

Check the fit before the shape

Shape gets you in the right neighborhood, but fit decides if the pair ever leaves the drawer. Three numbers are printed on most frames: lens width, bridge width and temple length. The lens width should roughly match the width of your face so the frame does not sit past your cheekbones or pinch at the temples. Your brow should not push the frame forward, and your lashes should clear the lens.

If you already own a pair that fits well, read the numbers on the inside of the temple and compare them with the listing. Our size guide walks through how to measure a frame you own and how to read those numbers.

Lens color and prescription do not change the shape advice. Sunglasses can take prescription lenses, and we make them to your prescription before they ship. Strong prescriptions can change how thick the lens edge looks, so tell us your numbers and we will suggest a frame that handles them well.

You can browse the full sunglasses collection and filter by style once you know where you land. Take two or three shapes, not one. Faces rarely sit in a single category, and plenty of people fall between two.

Unsure which category you belong to, or torn between two pairs? Email us or call +33 1 60 02 02 46, and one of our opticians will go through your measurements and help you choose.