Ask Dethroner: Cool Glasses That Aren’t Purposefully “Geeky”?

Jim T. writes:

I’m going to the optometrist on Friday and am in the search for a new pair of glasses (as well as getting contacts again). I never really looked at glasses as a fashion accessory as much as a necessity because I am blind as a bat and have been since I was five, but this time is different as I have a decent salary now (as opposed to no salary when I last went to the eye doctor) and figured I might as well get a pair that will look good on me for a while.

Enclosed are two pics, one with my current (over 4 years old) glasses and another with no glasses on. I would love to hear what the Dethroner readers have to say about what styles I should be looking at for the shape of my face, since I am at a loss. The only thing thats a definite is I HATE the big thick plastic geek glasses. Just because I work in IT doesn’t mean I have to look the part.

First of all, don’t write off the “big geek glasses” out of hand. I understand not wanting to go along with the crowd, but there’s a lot of variety in the thick-rimmed current styles and some of them can be quite flattering. Which ones? That’s the real trick.

I could give you the whole spiel about the shape of your head versus the shape of your glasses, but in my experience you won’t really know how a pair of glasses look until you go and put them on. That’s why going to the glasses store is still a valuable thing to do, especially with a friend. They’ll be a better judge of what looks better on you. Because glasses so considerably change the look of your face, they take a while to “sink in,” especially when it’s your own face they’re changing.

The most flattering glasses I’ve ever owned I bought from an internet glasses store for $12. They were a clear, somewhat square-frame of the type that I’d never tried before, simply because I was told that style wouldn’t look good on me. But I wasn’t sure I liked them at all at first. It took a couple of days before I realized they worked.