With many styles to choose from, it can be challenging to find the right glasses frames for you. Buying new ones can be a stressful experience especially when you don’t know where to buy the best glasses.
Furthermore, it can be an expensive practice and you can easily find yourself buying several frames before finding the right ones. This can often be worse when buying in-store as they cost so much more.
In the following guide, you’ll discover the best and most popular glasses frames that are easily available to buy either online or in a boutique shop. You can explore each of the frames we list throughout this detailed guide, which offers our best recommendations as well as styling guides based on your face shapes.
Best Glasses By Frame Type
Our Guides & What They Offer
After identifying the best and most trusted current glasses retailers, we ordered an average of 20 glasses of each style, which we tested to find the best among them.
We determined the best and most popular frames through a combination of historical research, fashion trends and sales statistics. From this, we established a variety of different frames that cater to a wide range of tastes and styles.
Furthermore, we have already created one of the best guides to face shapes on the internet, which we used for each frame style. This will allow you to choose with confidence the style that best suits you personally.
You can view our best recommendations of each frame type by simply referring to the frame guides themselves. However, if you’re searching for glasses based on other parameters, you can also check out our best glasses according to style and budget.
What Are The Best Different Glasses Frames?
If you were uncertain what the frames we identified in the menu above looked like, you can refer to the following clickable images below. If you like the look of one of these, simply click on it to discover the frame type in detail.
Each guide carefully covers the following:
- Best Glasses Of This Frame Type
- Frame’s History & Characteristics
- Will These Frames Suit You?
- Will The Frames Suit Your Face Shape?
Other Frames
As you will have noticed above, the list of frames that we cover in detail isn’t exactly exhaustive. We aimed to cover the most popular and stylish glasses available that are discernible styles.
Nevertheless, there are many other styles that exist. Among them are a few notable frames that we would like to mention that are either niche frames, variants or hybrids of those mentioned above.
Flat-Top Glasses
Although they are quite similar to wayfarers and squares, flat-tops feature a straight brow bar at the top reminiscent of cardboard 3D glasses. Generally, they tend to feature slightly smaller lenses than their cousins and are quite common as sunglasses.
However, as sunglasses they tend to be a popular choice for oversizing by the fashion-forward minded.
As a general rule, flat-top frames fall under the square frame family. In fact, our first recommended square glasses are technically flat tops. Therefore, you can usually apply the same styling and face shape rules to these.
Like square glasses, flat tops are a design that can be incorporated in a number of different personal styles or personae.
Horn-Rimmed Glasses
Technically speaking, horn-rimmed glasses aren’t strictly a frame construction but a stylistic element due to the material used. Nevertheless, it’s quite common for a lot of glasses to be referred to as horn-rimmed due to their distinctive appearance.
For instance, in the popular sci-fi TV series, Heroes, Jack Coleman’s character, Noah Bennet, was often referred to as “The Man In The Horn-Rimmed Glasses”. In fact, he was actually wearing what would technically be browline glasses.
When designating glasses as horn-rimmed, people are usually referring to glasses that were originally made from horn or tortoiseshell. However, both of these materials are rare and often illegal to use. Therefore, most glasses of this style are usually made from plastic or cellulose acetate to imitate these materials.
Popularised in the early 20th century by comedian Harold Lloyd, they’ve gone in and out of fashion every couple of decades. With the introduction of plastic materials, they became cheaper to purchase, which made them extremely popular from the 1940s and throughout the 1970s.
However, they fell out of fashion from the 1980s until the late ’90s. With the resurgence of hipster subculture and retro values in the early 2000s, horn-rimmed glasses became popular once again.
If you’re looking for horn-rimmed glasses, we suggest that you refer to one of the follow frames:
The above list will also cater to other considerations such as face shapes and personal style.
Rectangle Glasses
Like square glasses, rectangle frames usually refer to their general shape. However, their construction can greatly vary. For instance, rimless and semi-rimless glasses are commonly rectangle.
It’s also not uncommon for rectangle glasses to be variants of either square or wayfarers due to their plastic or acetate frames.
With large and wide lenses, they’re a stylistic choice that can be difficult to pull off depending on your face shape. Those with oblong face shapes generally benefit the most from this design. However, the others may not be so successful.
Another variation also exists known as “pillowed” rectangle frames. In fact, these are picture above and can be identified due to their thicker rims and wayfarer-style temple arms.
As they have somewhat fallen out of favour, we haven’t currently catered to these styles. However, you can refer to either square frames or rimless glasses for something visually similar.
Wraparound Glasses
Fans of U2 will find this style of frame instantly recognisable thanks to Bono’s eccentric yet iconic look. Characterised by their curving facade and wide temple arms, wraparound frames are glasses that provide maximum protection like a visor.
Unless they’re safety glasses for manual work, it’s rare to find clear-framed wraparounds. Usually, these come in the form of sunglasses that cater to athletes and those with outdoor activities.
One of the most notable brands to specialise in wraparound glasses is Oakley, a firm favourite among servicemen, skiers and extreme sports enthusiasts alike.
They’re often durable and robust frames that are built to stay attached to the face without falling off. The lenses themselves are designed to be wide for most of your vision while providing maximum protection from all angles.
What Next?
Now that you’ve read about the less common yet notable glasses frames available, feel free to head back up to the main menu to read our more detailed guides. Otherwise, we have related guides below:
- Coolest Glasses Styles To Buy Online
- Best Online Eye Wear Retailers
- Choosing Glasses According To Your Physique
- Guide To Glasses Lenses
"Intuitive! These are some of the most detailed guides I've seen online! Super helpful for finding the right frames."Rating: 5.0 ★★★★★
Glasses Content
