Blake Kuwahara glasses review: the frame within a frame, how it wears, and which fits

This is a review of Blake Kuwahara eyewear written from the fitting stool rather than the catalogue. Blake Kuwahara glasses and sunglasses are known for one construction, which the brand calls a frame within a frame. An inner silhouette sits inside an outer shape. On the brand's own account, the two silhouettes are milled as separate pieces of acetate and then laminated together. The brand says the lamination takes two months, and that a further six months goes into milling, polishing and finishing each frame. The result is one front that carries two outlines.

It is the construction the brand is known for, and it is what to look for on the acetate frames here. Nineteen of the twenty frames in stock are acetate. The one exception is the Fowler in Black (55-16-140, about 126mm across), a metal frame. The Fowler is metal, so it has one outline, not two.

The two outlines are the whole point. Each listing gives one shape word per frame, and that word describes the outer shape you see first. The Nivola (51-23-145, about 125mm across) is an oval. The Mallet (53-19-145, about 125mm across) is the only aviator model in stock, here in Midnight and in Tortoise. The Loos (48-24-145, about 120mm across) is geometric. Inside each of these outer shapes runs a second line, the edge of the inner silhouette, and that line is what makes the frame read as a Blake Kuwahara from across a room.

Someone searching whether Blake Kuwahara glasses are worth it is really asking one thing: does a front with two outlines earn its price over a front with one. The rest of this guide answers that in measurements, not adjectives.

A single-plate acetate frame has one edge, the outer edge of the front. Your eye reads it as one line around each lens. A frame within a frame has two edges. The eye reads the outer edge and the boundary between the two acetates as separate lines. At speaking distance, about a metre away, both lines are visible and the front looks as if it had been drawn twice. The frame gains depth without gaining much size.

In a photograph the effect changes. A phone photo taken at arm's length flattens the two edges into one thick front, and the second line is often lost. That is why these frames tend to photograph less well than they wear. The brand also says it textures some fronts by hand with a metal brush and rubs colour onto the surface. A camera flattens that too.

The practical rule follows from this. Judge a Blake Kuwahara frame on your face, in a mirror, at arm's length. Then step back to the mirror's far side and look again. Do not judge it from a selfie. If you are buying online without a try-on, read the measurements below and rely on the returns window rather than the photograph.

The colour names in stock, such as Slate Horn on the Bigger Blore (50-23-145) or Navy Horn on the Haycock (47-22-145), describe the finish of the whole front. That is something to see in the hand, and it is the first thing I look at when a pair comes out of its case.

Blake Kuwahara holds a doctorate of optometry from UC Berkeley, according to the brand's own designer page, and launched the collection in autumn 2015. That training shows in two places an optician notices at once: the bridge and the temple.

At the bridge, the brand says its acetate nose pads are 11mm tall against a standard of 7mm. A taller pad spreads the weight of the front over more skin. On a heavy acetate front that is the difference between a frame that leaves red marks by lunch and one that does not. It also gives an optician more material to work with when the pads need warming and shaping to a nose.

The bridges in stock run from 16mm on the Fowler (55-16-140) to 26mm on the Stanford (43-26-145), the BK1029 (44-26-145) and the Reed (46-26-140). A 26mm bridge on a 43mm or 44mm eye is an unusual pairing. It is the widest bridge in stock on the smallest lenses in stock. That is a designer who has measured faces and knows a small face is not always a narrow nose.

At the temple, the brand says each temple tip carries an extra 1mm of crystal acetate. That extra thickness is what an optician heats and bends behind the ear. The hinges are custom-made for the brand by a German hinge maker and laser-engraved with its logo, and the screws are nylon-coated stainless steel, which hold an adjustment instead of working loose. Temples in stock are 140mm on the Cobb (52-20-140), the Fowler and the Reed, 150mm on the Nichols (50-23-150), and 145mm on everything else.

Two milled silhouettes bonded together make a thicker front than a single plate cut to the same outline. More acetate means more weight. No gram weights are published, so none are quoted here. What I can say is where the weight sits and what it does.

The weight of any acetate frame sits on two points: the nose pads and the tops of the ears. The 11mm pads the brand describes are the answer to the first. The second is answered by a temple that has been fitted, not just worn. A frame that rests on the bridge and hangs off the ears will slide on a laminated front faster than on a thin one. A frame whose temples have been bent to hold the curve of the head does not.

Laminated acetate adjusts the way single-plate acetate does. Both layers are acetate, so both soften under the same gentle heat and take the same bend. An optician can warm the temple tip, curve it round the ear and set it, and can warm the bridge to open or close the pads a little. What an optician cannot do is change the shape of the front, so buy the size that fits rather than hoping to adjust one that does not.

The Fowler is the one metal frame in stock. The brand says its metal frames carry hypoallergenic silicone nose pads. A metal bridge with silicone pads is adjusted with pliers rather than heat. For a low bridge or a narrow nose, that is the easier frame to fit closely.

Across-the-front width is twice the eye size plus the bridge. Measure the frame you wear now and compare. A difference of 2mm either way is fine. A difference of 5mm shows.

Narrow. For a small face, the Stanford (43-26-145, about 112mm across) is the narrowest frame in stock, followed by the BK1029 (44-26-145, about 114mm), the Haycock (47-22-145, about 116mm) and the Reed (46-26-140, about 118mm). The Stanford, and in sunglasses the BK1029 and Reed, pair small lenses with a 26mm bridge. That suits a small face with a broad or flat nose. On a narrow nose the pads will not meet the skin and the frame will sit low. The Haycock's 22mm bridge is the closer fit for a narrow nose in this group.

Mid. Eight of the twenty frames sit between 119mm and 124mm across, and eight more at 125mm or over. The Valerio (50-19-145, about 119mm), the Loos (48-24-145, about 120mm), the Platner (49-23-145, about 121mm), the Mathson (52-18-145, about 122mm), the Bigger Blore and the Nichols (both 50-23, about 123mm) and the Cobb (52-20-140, about 124mm). Within that band the bridge decides. The Mathson at 18mm and the Valerio at 19mm are for a narrow nose. The Loos at 24mm is for a broad one.

Wide. The Mallet (53-19-145, about 125mm) and the Nivola (51-23-145, about 125mm) are the same width across but reach it differently, the Mallet with a big lens and a narrow bridge, the Nivola with a smaller lens and a wide one. The Fowler (55-16-140, about 126mm) has the largest eye size in stock and the narrowest bridge. The Hall (52-24-145, about 128mm) is the widest frame in stock. If your current frame measures well over 130mm across, none of these will be a comfortable fit, and the frame size guide will point you to brands that run larger.

Two models in stock come as both an optical frame and a sunglass. The Nivola is in stock in Violet as an optical frame and in Pumpkin and Moss as sunglasses, all 51-23-145. The Loos is in stock in Black Weave as an optical frame and in Mist as a sunglass, both 48-24-145. If you like the shape of one, the other will sit on your face the same way.

The store does not glaze. Every frame ships as it comes: an optical frame ships as a frame, and a sunglass ships with the tinted lenses the brand fitted. Shipping within the US is free, insured and signed for. Your own optician fits your prescription into an optical frame. For a local buyer, the Eye Rx practice can do it. If you want your prescription in one of the sunglasses, ask your optician about reglazing before you order; some tints and some prescriptions do not combine well in a large lens.

For a progressive lens, the number that matters is lens height. A progressive needs room below the pupil for the reading zone. Most designs want at least 28 to 30mm of lens height, and are happier with more. Every frame in stock clears that. The shallowest are the Mathson and the Fowler at 35mm and the Cobb at 36mm, which will take a short-corridor progressive but not a long one. The Nivola is 38mm. The Bigger Blore, Nichols, Valerio and Reed are 39mm. The BK1029 and Stanford are 40mm, the Platner and Hall are 41mm, the Haycock is 42mm, and the Loos and the Mallet are the deepest at 44mm. For a first progressive I would steer towards 39mm or more.

For single vision, any of them works. For a strong minus prescription, the smaller eye sizes keep the lens edges thinner, which is a point for the Stanford. The BK1029 and Reed are sunglasses and come with their sun lenses fitted. The lens guide covers the rest.

Every Blake Kuwahara frame in stock is $790, sunglass and optical alike, round and aviator alike, acetate and metal alike. That is the price of the frame. Lenses are extra and are fitted by your own optician.

A plain acetate frame made in Japan, with one silhouette cut from one plate, well polished and well hinged, costs a good deal less. It is a good frame. It will last years, it will adjust, and nobody will notice it. If that is what you want, buy that and do not read further.

What the extra money buys here is the second outline, and the work that goes into it. On the brand's own account that means two silhouettes milled separately, a two-month lamination and six months of milling, polishing and finishing, hand texturing on some fronts, taller nose pads than standard, thicker temple tips than standard and hinges custom-made by a German maker. Every one of those is a thing an optician can point to on the frame. None of them is a logo.

So the honest answer to whether Blake Kuwahara glasses are worth it is: yes, if you want a frame that people at speaking distance will see as drawn twice, and no, if you do not. There is no middle. A frame within a frame worn by someone who wanted a quiet frame is $790 of regret. The same frame on someone who wanted the line is the frame they wear until it wears out.

If you buy online and it is wrong on your face, returns are accepted within 7 days of delivery with a 15% restocking fee. That is the cost of not trying it on, and it is why I would rather you did.

Try the frames on in Arlington or Dumfries, Virginia. Come in, bring the glasses you wear now, and we will measure them and you. Ten minutes with a rule settles what a page of numbers cannot: whether a 26mm bridge sits on your nose, whether a 44mm lens height looks right on your face, whether the second line reads the way you hoped.

If you are far away, the table above lists every Blake Kuwahara frame in stock with its measurements. Pick by across-the-front width first, then by bridge, then by lens height if you wear a progressive. Order it, and if it is wrong, send it back within the 7 days. If it is right, take it to your optician for lenses, or to the Eye Rx practice if you are local. Details of both shops, hours and directions are on the visit page.