How To Choose Good Fitting Glasses

This handy little guide will help you to choose a good fitting pair of glasses. Every pair of glasses is marked with various measurements which we will cover below. However, these measurements are not really intended to be used for determining a fitting size, as you would expect with clothing or shoes. They are simply measurements of the various parts that make up a frame. Whilst they can be handy for reference, they are not the best to use when choosing a good fitting frame.

For this reason we have physically measured the total width and lens depth of each frame that appears on our website, we call this the fitting size. You can compare the fitting size to your existing frames, making it much easier to choose a similar fitting pair.

Frame Fitting Size (Recommended)

Whilst browsing our website you will see two sets of numbers for each frame (see picture). The first set is the frame measurements that you would expect to see on your existing glasses. The second set however, is the fitting size. The fitting size comprises of the total frame width and the lens depth in millimetres.

In this example you can see the total frame width is 139mm. This is the most important measurement and it is recommended that you choose a pair with a total width measurement as close to your existing pair as possible (within a few millimetres).

You can also see the lens depth is 40mm. Whilst the depth is not required for fitting, it is useful for a comparison to your existing pair. After all, you may be choosing a deeper style all together.

Frame Measurements

The first set of numbers (see picture) refers to the Lens Width, The Distance Between the Lenses (BDL) and the Arm Length in this example 50-21-145, you can see the Lens Width is 50mm The DBL is 21mm and the Arm Length is 145mm.

Whilst these can be used for reference the problem is that they do not indicate the overall width of the overall frame. Styles such as an aviator will have the lenses much closer together higher up in the frame near your forehead, whilst round glasses tend to have the lenses further apart but with the bridge lower in the frame. So you can see how this can cause complications if using them to determine a good fit. In our opinion it’s much better to choose a frame by comparing the total frame width in the fitting size.