How to choose your frames
At FINLAY, our mission is to create spectacles and sunglasses as individual as our wearers.
The most rewarding part of what we do is seeing our frames paired beautifully with your personality, lifestyle and optical needs.
Like the clothes we dress ourselves in, our choice of eyewear is a means of self expression.
The colour & the shape
When it comes to finding the perfect frames, the choice can sometimes seem overwhelming. A good way to start is by finding out which colours and shapes compliment you most. This is also a chance to really have some fun by experimenting with your look!
What’s your palette?
In terms of frame colour, we tend to work with our ‘natural’ colouring. Your skin tone, hair colour and eye colour can help to distinguish which colour frames work most harmoniously with you. Changing your hair colour or tinting your eyebrows will also influence your natural colour palette.
Everyone has their own unique colour palette, but to make things easier we can generally sort people into having either a warm, neutral or cool palette. Choosing a frame colour that is closest to your skin tone will blend in more, whereas more contrasting frame colours will stand out and give definition.
Your individual fashion sense can also weigh in when choosing the colour of your frame. For example, if your skin and hair are both a light, cooler colour, but you tend to wear bolder, darker colours, you may opt for a slightly warmer, deeper colour of frame then your natural palette, as a medium between the two. If you're thinking of buying a metal frame, the colour of jewellery you wear will most likely decide if you go for gold, silver or perhaps a colour-coated metal.
There’s no face like home
Frames styles that look most at home on you tend to be the opposite to your face’s shape, creating a visual balance. For example, if you have a round face, try a squarer, more angular frame to deflect the roundness, moving the focus to your features (and great choice of eyewear) instead. Face shapes can generally be identified into these following categories:
Oval faces
This type of face shape is the most common amongst us. As the visible top half of the face below the hairline is wider than the bottom half below the cheekbones, the tapering jawline gives a lengthened appearance. Already quite visually balanced, oval faces can work with most frame styles, particularly if the lower rim of the frame is less circular.
Round faces
We recommend choosing a frame with a much more angular fit for round faces. More rectangular frames will contrast the roundness, focusing attention to your features and giving definition. A more narrow frame will also give the illusion of depth.
Square faces
Square face shapes have a noticeably sharper, straighter jawline. Wearing a more rounded, panto-lens frame will act to soften your naturally angular dimensions. You can definitely go for frames with flowing, smooth silhouettes.
Rectangular faces
This face shape shares similarities to a square face, only longer and often not as sharp a jawline. A rounder, slightly more cat-eyed frame will again soften the angles of the face, with the upswept detail cleverly creating width without a boxy edge.
There are a few other aspects of our faces to be aware of when choosing frames. If you have a small pupillary distance (from one eye’s pupil to the other), a more petite frame will keep your pupils sitting in the centre of the frame, exactly where we want them. Our noses will also fit certain nose bridge styles more comfortably.
And in terms of your face size, it’s a good idea to choose a frame that matches in size too.
Material goals
When it comes to what your frame is made of, acetates or metals are the two most widely used materials in the industry for their practical and desirable qualities. It really does come down to personal choice whether you prefer the look and feel of one or the other. Your prescription will sometimes dictate which option to go for, but we’ll explain more about that in the next part...
Acetates will give you a multitude of colours to choose from and are available in much bolder shapes. Metals have a more delicate, traditional quality. Some designers have also created frames that combine the two materials, for those who want something more unusual.
We use only the finest Mazzucchelli acetate for our frames, engineered to be lightweight and naturally hypoallergenic. Our metal designs will give an even lighter feel to a more sensitive wearer. Nose pads will be more apparent on metal frames compared to an acetate frame, which may have a bearing on your preference as well.
Optimal for optical
Your prescription will also play a big part in which lens size and shape will give you the most optimal vision and aesthetic. A higher and more complex prescription will add thickness to the lens, even after thinning, compared to the lenses for smaller prescriptions. So we would recommend choosing a rounder, acetate frame as it’s more optically and aesthetically accommodating to a thicker lens.
A bolder shade
Weather dependent, most of us don’t wear sunglasses as daily as a pair of spectacles. Therefore you can always afford to be more playful when it comes to shopping for shades. It may also have something to do with the visual anonymity created by wearing a tinted lens colour. It can feel freeing, our eyes disguised to the rest of the world, and mean we are less scared of going that little bit bolder. More oversized, more vibrant, more outgoing. And for those spending more time in the sunshine, a larger style will give you that extra bit of coverage.
Now you’re well on your way to choosing your perfect frame, let's get shopping...
Have fun finding your frames and don't worry if you need a little extra help, our friendly team are here to assist.