Trends in spectacle frames, what's in at the moment?

[Mum5net]

My Opticians are amazing with the technical aspect of 'servicing' my eyes but their range of frames is parked in the last century.
Has anyone got any good suggestions, online or otherwise, for sharp looking frames? Even from European sites and cities. I'm hindered by a +9 prescription so rimless, super light frames never work for me. Traditionally I am guided towards smaller rectangular shapes, but I can get the lenses thinned and my opticians have acknowledged their range is rubbish and will happily source from elsewhere, if I find what I want.

Hi, sorry if this is a stupid question, but are you physically going to the stores? I assume you live in a big city to do this?
I am very fussy about my glasses. I can't imagine successfully buying online.
I've noticed the current trend is for much larger frames, and I just can't imagine them working with a strong prescription.
I need to replace mine, but am working up to it. I hate the process, and the expense.

Just following to see what you get. I need new glasses - feel I don’t make enough effort to choose something that is plonked on my face for the whole day, whereas I’d spend hours picking out jewellery or clothes etc.

There’s no fancy shops like Cubitts or otherwise here though - Asda opticians is about as chic as it gets

@GreyDuck I don't enjoy the process or the expense either
I have too complex a prescription to not do the fitting face-to-face.
The options are:

1. Go to long-standing technically fab optician premises I've been going to for over 30 years, get tested and accept from their choice of about six frames. Cost will be £600 as they have already quoted me £400 for my lenses
2. Buy frames online (or in person) myself, take them to original optician and pay a £60 fee to long standing optician to glaze them for me with new prescription, and the £400 lens fee. (So I could take the £75 one from Ace & Tate)
3. Find frames I like online and get my optician to try and source them for me; this way I am spared the glazing fee but the optician will charge me handsomely for the sourced frames. Advantage of this would be they could get samples from manufacturers on an approval basis, and potentially use UK supply chain processes to avoid me having the hassle of returning frames to Europe which need to pay 20% European VAT.
4. Take my prescription to somewhere like Cubitts and get them to supply the glasses as a complete item. Already I know that their frames will be about £125 and their lenses are upwards of £350 plus coatings etc. They are 50 miles away.

What I've learned so far:

• By measuring my existing frames - 124mm - I need a small and narrow frame
• Because I need varifocals, I am limited to the shapes I can have - round, rectangle, octagonal etc and that I can't have aviator or cat eye.
• That I'm totally excited about buying some frames that have clip on sunglasses that match perfectly and being able to drive with sunglasses
• That I'm fed up with tortoiseshell but it suits me
• That I want to keep my own optician onside as they tighten the legs for me every six weeks or so
• That this is flaming time consuming and its so much easier going to option 1

Oh yes, and @WeAreBorg I also have to check framesat Asda as they are the cheapest place for my slimmed down + 9 lenses.

Try https://www.finlayandco.com/collections/full-spectacles-collection

All my sunglasses are from them.

I have these Tom Ford ones. Cost a bloody fortune.

get lots of compliments and enquiries. I think it’s really important to consider your hair colouring. I think that black frames can look really severe on people with brown hair.

The Two Ronnies look is popular at the moment for some unfathomable reason. The two women in our school office dress almost identically down to the hair bleach and Ronnie specs. You can only tell them apart close up 🤣

I've got some Eco glasses with 'clip on' sunglasses to match. They're not clip on though - they're magnetic. They're brilliant! Super portable and it means you don't need new prescription sunnies every time your prescription changes.

https://international.eco-eyewear.com/collections/glasses

https://www.tomford.co.uk/square-optical-frame/6468968879.html

Here's an image of the magnetic sunnies:

https://international.eco-eyewear.com/collections/women-glasses/products/peony

They’re really nice

I think a good optician is a wonderful thing and I definitely don't recommend falling out with yours op. But that said, I have varifocals and, while I know the prescription can be limiting, I've worn cats eye frames for years. I'm only planning to move on from them because I'm bored.

I've got lenses that turn darker in sunlight. It doesn't work perfectly and it's a further expense but it means I avoid shelling out for prescription sunglasses or faffing around with clip-ons.

And god, yes I am so sick of tortoiseshell!

OP just a heads up (and I haaaate that I might kill your buzz 😭 and I hope you'd get the advice in practice too, but I'd hate you to waste more money if not), but clip on sunnies might not work very well with your lenses, even with the thinner material they'll be a bit bulbous and the clip on might not fit.

That's a really good point @Floisme about tending to choose things that are the same as the old pair. I definitely do this. But then I think I know which shapes suit me.

@Mum5net sorry Ace & Tate didn't work out. I'm afraid Cubitts is very similar (in terms of range and shopping experience) so it might not be any better.

Could you ask your optician if they can order in other styles for you? I used to be at an independent optician that offered to do this.

@gravitytester That rings a bell... My optician has told me that previously.
I've had a bit of a head wobble about Asda...
I had forgotten until the prompt that they do high prescription variofocals at standard prices...
I might buy a single Asda pair at £130 for lenses and frame and pay extra for sunglasses....
@WhereAreWeNow Thank you. They have offered this. I will take a list of all the recommendations on here and ask them whom they deal with...

https://www.irisoptical.co.uk/opticians-Richmond.cfm

This place is good - call them and they might have a solution. Alexis also designs his own frames

Vision express have some nice ones in. What I don’t understand with them though is why they’re so much more expensive than specsavers. I don’t just mean the frames being more expensive but the lenses and the thinning. 🤷‍♀️

If you have an optician you like and trust, that's worth a lot.
I had a bad experience when I think they forgot to thin the lenses in my sunglasses (they were over an inch thick). Although they did replace them under a 30 day no-quibble policy it was a rubbish experience because despite not being able to measure the amount of thinning, they insisted that they were right. Also I was made to feel like a complete bimbo for actually wanting my glasses to look nice.

There are some really nice options being posted. I hope you find something OP.

Just a word of caution about reactive lenses for sunglasses. My optician (who wears them himself) warned me they are a bit Marmite. I didn't get on with them for a whole host of reasons

• they react to UV not visible light, so can end up quite dark on an overcast day. (Although this is probably good from a protective point of view).
• the reversal reaction is heat dependent, so in hot holidays (Malta in August) they never got fully dark. Conversely on a skiing holiday, they took forever to clear.

-you end up with a slightly tinted effect a lot of the time. I prefer fully clear or dark, not in-between.

• proper sunglasses tend to be big so they physically block light from more direction. Low winter sun in particular would shine into my eyes over my glasses frames. Then I couldn't see because my pupils would react to the light, but I'd still be trying to look through the dark glasses.

I hate reactolites. So un chic . Please don’t get them

Speaking strictly for me, I never listen to anyone who tells me flat out not to get something, not even if they say 'please'. Reactive lenses aren't a silver bullet but we're all different and I much prefer them to the endless faff of switching between specs and sunglasses or clipons. Before I got them I used to spend half my time squinting in the sun because I was only going to be out for 10 minutes and I just couldn't be bothered rummaging for sunglasses, so that wasn't good.

The biggest drawback I've found is that they're not effective when driving but I don't drive that often these days so for me, that's not a deal breaker.

I think I had 30 days to try them out.

An INCH thick?
Surely no optician would let any glasses go out the door with inch thick lenses in them?
How could they possibly even be secured in the frame?

@CormorantStrikesBack they do, although I only know that because I just checked. I don't notice them at all. Conversely, I don't have sore ears from heavy frames and, wonder if wonders, they don't slip all over the place, as plastic ones eventually do. That said, it's impossible to find them In tortoiseshell, which I'd prefer.

I have just got a ruler out, and think I probably mis-remembered the inch, sorry. They were completely ridiculous though, I'm certain of that.

Ha ha, that reminds me of people who have conversations with hairdressers about “just take an inch off” then get upset when their hair is too short 😀.