Are designer glasses frames worth it? An optician's answer

A designer frame is worth it when you wear it every day for years and the price has gone into things you can check: the material, the hinges, the finish, a fit that stays set, and parts behind it if something breaks. It is not worth it when the only difference is the name on the temple.

Price and quality do not line up neatly. When this guide was written, Blackfin's titanium frames, made in Agordo in the Italian Dolomites, cost less than most of the acetate frames we list, and Cartier's horn and wood rimless frames cost far more than its plain gold rimless ones. Each listing gives its current price. Read the frame, not the price. Our DITA vs Oliver Peoples comparison sets two price bands side by side.

A designer name can mean two things. It can be a fashion label, licensed to a company that makes the frames. Or it can be a brand that designs its own frames and has them made to its own standard. The useful question is where, and by whom, a frame is made. Some brands say so plainly:

• Blackfin works in Agordo, in the Italian Alps, and says everything it creates is conceived and produced in Italy.
• DITA says it is not a fashion licence, finishes all its frames in Japan, and can take as many as 350 separate steps over a single frame.
• Matsuda says each design is crafted by hand in the eyewear workshops of Sabae, Japan, in as many as 250 steps.
• Henau says it swears by hand-drawn designs and hands the assembly of its frames to specialists in France.

A brand that tells you where its frames are made, and how, gives you something to check. A name alone does not.

Titanium. Light, strong and resistant to corrosion, so a titanium frame can be very fine and still keep its shape. DITA says every one of its frames is finished in Japan, and that a single frame can take as many as 350 separate steps. The company behind Blackfin turned to titanium in 1991. Matsuda works in titanium, sterling silver and gold, by hand in Japanese workshops. See our metal frames and the frames made in Japan.

Acetate, finished by hand. Acetate is a plastic supplied in sheets, and the finishing is where the hand shows: smooth edges, an even polish, a clean join at the hinge. Henau says its designs are hand-drawn, and hands the assembly of its frames to specialists in France. For its frame-within-a-frame acetate designs, Blake Kuwahara says it mills the inner and outer parts separately and laminates them together in a process it puts at two months, and that texture and colour on the front are added by hand. See our acetate frames.

Horn and wood. Cartier offers wood and horn in some of its collections, and a few of the Cartier rimless frames we list pair gold-finish metal with buffalo horn or wood temples. They cost more than the plain metal ones, and they need more care: Cartier's care advice keeps water and detergents off horn, keeps water, greasy substances, make-up and cleaning products off wood, and tells you to keep glasses in their case, away from heat. See Cartier horn and wood.

Hinges. The hinge moves every time you put the frame on, and it is where cheap frames tend to give out first. OVVO's patented hinge has no hinge screw to work loose. OVVO says its hinges are lab-tested to 90 pounds of pulling force and 300,000 rotations.

Adjustment. An optician sets a frame to your head: temples, tilt, the curve behind the ear, the pads. Acetate is warmed to adjust and tends to hold its set. Metal frames usually sit on nose pads on small arms that can be bent to raise, lower or level the frame. A frame that holds its adjustment keeps the lenses where the optician put them, in front of your pupils.

Repair. Screws and nose pads are standard parts. A temple, a front or a special hinge has to come from the brand, if it still supplies that model. Parts for a given model are not available for ever, and we cannot promise them, so if repair matters to you, ask before you buy.

Sharper vision. That is the lenses: an up-to-date prescription, the lens design, and how accurately the optician centres each lens on your pupil and, for progressives, sets the fitting height. The same lenses, fitted equally well, see the same in a modest frame as in an expensive one.

Fit. A frame at the wrong width, or with a bridge that does not suit your nose, will slide, pinch or tilt whatever it cost, and a tilted frame moves the lenses off their centres.

1. Work the hinges. Even resistance, no wobble, no grinding.
2. Set it upside down on a table, temples open. Both temples should touch. If one lifts, the frame is out of true.
3. Run a finger round the edges. Acetate should be smooth at the rims, bridge and temple tips. On metal, look at the joins and the finish near the hinges.
4. Look at the nose. Pads on arms can be set to your nose. A bridge shaped into an acetate front has to fit as it is.
5. Read the inside of the temple. Model, colour code and the three size numbers are usually there. Check them against the listing: our listings print the same three numbers, such as 52-20-145 on the Blackfin Brookwood.

Online you cannot do this first, which is why every listing here carries its measurements.

• A spare pair, for the car, the gym or the bedside.
• Glasses that will have a hard life: sport, rough work, or a habit of losing them.
• A shape you want to try before committing to it.

The case for spending more is strongest for the pair you wear all day, every day. A well-made frame can often take new lenses when your prescription changes, once the optician fitting them confirms with your measurements that it suits, so its cost is spread across more than one prescription.

If a frame is the wrong size, nothing above makes it worth the money. Read the three numbers inside the temple of a pair you wear comfortably and add the two lens widths and the bridge; our frame size guide shows how. The narrow and wide frames pages gather the fronts at either end of the range.

We sell frames only, not prescription lenses. An optician fits the lenses, in our Arlington or Dumfries shops or your own, and confirms with your measurements that the frame suits your prescription; our lens guide covers what to bring. Shipping is free and insured within the US. Returns are accepted within seven days of delivery, less a 15% restocking fee, and sale frames are final sale.