How to Pick Sunglasses for Your Face Shape

Learn how to pick the right sunglasses for the shape of your face from fashion editor Verena von Pfetten in this Howcast video.


When you're shopping for sunglasses, there's a few different directions you can go. You can opt for a classic shade or a classic style that's sort of been around and you know you're gonna want to wear forever. Or you can get a little more playful. And there's a few different shapes and there's certain ones that go better with certain face shapes.

Some of the more classic styles are the sort of aviator style or the wayfarer, made famous by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Or a cat eye which is something, again, that we saw a little bit more in the 60's, a bigger frame. And those are sort of the three classic shapes.

When it comes to figuring out what works best with your face shape, it's best to play around. Because sometimes aviators, it really depends on the size; you can get small ones, or you can get over-sized.

Obviously if you have a sort of oval or relatively round face you can get away with almost everything. If you have a square jaw you want to pick a pair of sunglasses that have some width and a larger frame. Just sort of to balance things out on your face. And the flip side is if you have a longer or more narrow face you don't want to get a pair of sunglasses that overwhelm you or stick out really far and look like they're too big for your face. So it's really just about making sure that they fit the proportions.

So when it comes to buying sunglasses, if you're gonna spend a lot of money on them I really recommend buying a classic shape. In this case we have three of what I would say are sort of the most classic. We have the wayfarer, a cat eye and then a pair of aviators. And if you're gonna spend money, again you want a shape that's really not gonna go out of style.

If you're going to be a little bit more playful with your sunglasses go for the cheap kind. Find a street vendor and get a bunch of different colors. Maybe get green or red or orange and that's where you can sort of be little more playful, especially in the summer.

Something like a cat eye is great if you are going for an old school glamour look. I love it with some red lipstick and maybe like a big shawl coat. This is a way to look a little bit, a little Jackie O. and get a little old Hollywood glamour in it.

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