Fashion Frames Express Your Signature Style

These aren’t your grandmother’s glasses. New eye-wear colors and shapes enhance your look. Select fashion frames to complement your features and highlight your signature style.

Of course, your glasses help you gain clear vision of the great big world all around; but, when the world looks back at you, the people see how your fashion frames symbolize your signature style, values, and expectations. If you shop with exceptional skill and savoir faire, the world will read your entire autobiography in your frames.

Eyewear 101

With those ambitious objectives, you must build from solid fundamentals. First, frames come in only seven basic shapes. Although designers manipulate lines and curves to make bold statements, nevertheless their designs fall into one of the seven basic categories. Sadly, you cannot choose according to the cool girls’ selections, because your frames’ color and shape must work with the shape of your face, your skin’s tint and hue, and the multi-tones in your hair. Your frames also must harmonize with and properly accessorize your everyday ensembles. Meeting the challenge, women who earn their paychecks as personal shoppers go to framesdirect.com, where they find up-to-the-second styles from every designer known to humankind but also a virtual encyclopedia of eyeglass information.

The fashion forecast

In 2012, designers have adopted the motto, “Don’t fear the colors.” They have reworked designs from the fifties and sixties in bold new primary colors and a full palette of soft, subtle pastels. Several trendy designers have capitalized on cutting-edge composites technology to create spectacular color gradients in very old-fashioned frames. Even if you call yourself an old-fashioned girl, you can update your vintage look with breakthrough colors.

Preppy

The lines between preppy and nerdy sometimes blur, so you should shop very traditional schoolgirl styles from Lafont. You’ll recognize Lafont’s affection for preppies in the fact they offer six different colors and shades of tortoise shell. No other designer can match that palette. Of course, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein still cater to your needs, wants, and wishes, constantly reinventing traditions to fit with today’s trends. Sometimes, though, great surprises hide where you least expect them. Check Kate Spade for several adorable vintage styles guaranteed to harmonize with all your button-downs and cardigans.

Professional

Four magic letters spell-out the formula for all perfectly professional eyewear—DKNY. No one, absolutely no one rivals DKNY for go-everywhere, do everything, day-into-night frame styles priced well within emerging executives’ budgets. Looking at nearly 50 styles in the DKNY collection, you inevitably will find exactly, precisely, definitely and unequivocally the right shape and color to accent all your suits and blazers.

Sporty

At the London Olympics, America’s hottest track and field athletes will keep their cool and stay wonderfully aerodynamic with eyewear from Oakley. Elite hurdler Lolo Jones models Oakley designs as she sets world records. Her glasses make Lolo look fast even when she’s standing still. Designed and built for regular training and competition, most Oakley designs feature wrap-around styling rendered in indestructible materials; many have no hardware. Not all lenses will work with Oakley frames, so you should consult with your eye-care professional before ordering.

Fashionista

Savor the names as you select the right styles—Gucci, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana and Juicy Couture. Kardashians and heiresses don these glasses as they read their contracts, and you may usurp fashion’s throne when you wear these glasses to read your grocery lists. Many of these designers are pushing the envelope with uber-cool rimless styles. The good news—rimless styles reduce your worry about matching the shape of your face. The bad news—not all prescriptions fit in rimless frames.

The Mom Uniform

Tory Burch has become your new best friend. Tory’s eyewear line combines durable materials with contemporary styling, and you can fill your prescription with money left-over for the team’s granola bars and juice boxes. Burch designs accommodate lenses in all thicknesses and gradations, and they are manufactured with long-wearing, secure hinges so that your frames will last until the next time your eye-care plan says it’s okay to go shopping. Best of all, the carpool girls will certify your glasses are cool yet still comply with the official rules of motherly propriety.

Although you always find the best styles at the lowest prices when you shop online, ordering glasses from an online vendor poses some serious risks. The frames that look awesome on-screen may look considerably less than awesome on-face. Find a few promising looks and try them at your local eyewear emporium, challenging your merchant to match the online price in exchange for your lifetime loyalty. Your story will have a happy ending.

This post was written by a guest contributor. About the Author:

Author Sara Roberts has a background in health writing and is a content contributor for fashion-foward retailer Just Eyewear, a site where you can get fabulous eyeglasses and sunglasses without breaking the bank.