Which Frames Suit Your Face? A Burlington Optician's Fitting Guide

Almost everyone who walks into our boutique on Brant Street opens with the same question: what shape suits me? It is a good question, and the internet answers it badly — usually with a chart that ignores the three things that actually decide whether a pair works.

Here is how we approach it when we fit glasses in Burlington, and how you can narrow the wall down before you even try a pair on.

Start with contrast, not with rules

The single most useful principle in eyewear styling is contrast. Angular frames flatter soft, rounded features; rounded frames soften strong, angular ones. Everything below is that one idea applied to specific faces.

Round faces

Rounder faces have soft transitions and similar width and length. Rectangular and square frames add structure and visually lengthen the face; a slightly wider frame with a defined top line does the most work. Avoid small round frames, which echo the face shape rather than balancing it.

Square and strong-jawed faces

Here you want to soften. Round, panto and oval shapes in acetate work beautifully, and a thinner metal frame keeps a strong jaw from looking heavier. Handmade collections like Moscot and Oliver Peoples are built almost entirely around these silhouettes.

Heart-shaped faces

A wider forehead and narrower chin call for something that lifts the eye line and adds width low down: cat-eye and upswept shapes, or a frame with a bit of colour or detail on the lower rim. Keep the top line from being too heavy.

Oval faces

Oval faces suit nearly everything, which is a blessing and a curse — with no constraints, the choice becomes purely about the look you want. This is where we tend to encourage people to be braver: geometric, hexagonal or bold acetate frames from independent houses.

Longer faces

Depth matters more than width. A taller lens shape, a low bridge or a decorative temple breaks up the vertical line. Aviators are a reliable answer, and one of the reasons they are so widely flattering.

The three things a face-shape chart never tells you

1. Bridge fit. If the bridge is too wide the frame slides; too narrow and it pinches and leaves marks. Two frames in identical shapes can fit completely differently, and the bridge is usually why.

2. Your prescription. A strong minus prescription in a large, deep frame gets thick and heavy at the edges. We often steer stronger prescriptions toward smaller, better-proportioned frames and high-index lenses — you get the look you wanted without the bottle-glass edge.

3. Colouring. Warm skin tones and golden or auburn hair sit well against tortoiseshell, caramel, gold and olive. Cooler tones carry black, grey, silver, blue and clear crystal. This is the fastest way to make a frame look intentional rather than borrowed.

How we fit a pair, in person

Every pair we sell is measured and adjusted by Master Optician Farshad Nekoui — pupil height, vertex distance, pantoscopic tilt — because a perfect prescription in a badly positioned lens is still a bad pair of glasses. See the full process on our glasses in Burlington page, or browse the brands we carry.

Need a current prescription first? Our eye exams in Burlington happen on site with Dr. Tayal, so you can be examined and choose frames in the same visit.

Come try frames on

No appointment is needed to browse. We are at 468 Brant St, Unit 1 in downtown Burlington, with free parking nearby, serving Burlington, Aldershot, Waterdown and Oakville. Get in touch and bring the pair you are wearing now — knowing what does not work is half the answer.