DITA by total frame width: a fit guide to the frames we hold

DITA is a titanium brand first, and that is the thing to hold on to before any of the numbers. Its own heritage page dates the brand to 1995, says it began concentrating production in Japan in 1999, and marks 2002 as the year of the Flight-Series, an all-titanium frame the brand describes as a thicker version of the classic aviator. Its craftsmanship page puts the position plainly: we finish all our frames in Japan, not because we can, but because we must.

The material claims come from the same page. DITA says it uses one of the highest grades of beta-titanium, that the material is light, durable and extremely flexible, and that its beta-titanium is a third the weight of steel. It says a single frame can take as many as 350 separate production steps over eight months, and that craftsmen run their hands over the surfaces in search of the slightest imperfection. Acetate is polished the slow way, tumbled in genuine hand-cut bamboo chips.

What that buys you, in the hand, is a rim that can be very fine and still hold a lens square, and a frame that weighs less than it looks like it should. Every listing we hold says designed in Los Angeles, handmade in Japan. The brand's own site gives its headquarters as Aliso Viejo, California, so read the Los Angeles line as our listings' wording rather than the brand's.

The DITA frames we stock are eyeglasses and sunglasses, all new and unworn. Some are metal alone, some combine acetate with titanium, and the Waylun is acetate alone. Measured across the front they span about 119mm to about 132mm, a narrower spread than the eye sizes suggest, and that gap between what the eye size says and what the frame does is what the rest of this guide is about.

DITA names its frames rather than numbering them, and ours show the pattern. Sahvana, Okulus, Lunari, Dahlvin and Waylun are plain names.

The colour codes on the listings do more work. Each frame carries a code: the first block is the model, the last two digits the colourway. Our Sahvana in Black Glass / White Gold is DTX481-A-01, so DTX481 is the Sahvana; our Waylun in Crystal Night is DTX722-A-04, so DTX722 is the Waylun. In the frames we hold, every optical frame's code begins DTX and the sun frame's begins DTS, which is a useful tell when you are reading a code with no photograph attached.

Then the three numbers. DITA's own size guide sets them out as LW/DBL-TL. LW is lens width, one lens at its widest point. DBL is the distance between the lenses at their nearest points, which is the bridge. TL is the temple, measured from the centre of the hinge to the tip. The guide's advice for finding your size is the advice we would give across the counter: take a pair you already wear and find comfortable, and read the numbers printed inside the arm, usually as something like 61 ◻ 14-144.

The same guide defines frame width as the width of the frame edge to edge. That is the measurement this guide cares about, and it is the one you cannot read off a listing. What you can do is add the two lens widths and the bridge, which covers the lenses and the nose and lands close. It is approximate, so every such figure here is written as about. The table below gives each frame's own numbers.

Sorted by eye size, our DITAs run from 48 to 58. Sorted by width across the front they tell a different story, and the difference is the point of this guide.

Several land within 1mm of each other. Waylun is about 119mm, from a 48mm eye and a 23mm bridge. Okulus, Lunari and Sahvana are each about 120mm, and they get there three different ways: a 49mm eye with a 22mm bridge, a 51mm eye with an 18mm bridge, a 52mm eye with a 16mm bridge.

Read that again, because it is the trap. Okulus has a 49mm eye and is still as wide across the front as Sahvana at 52mm. Sahvana's eye is 4mm larger than Waylun's, 8mm across two lenses, yet it sits only about 1mm wider across the front. A wide bridge gives back what a small lens saves. Shop DITA on eye size alone and you can easily pick the wrong frame.

Above 120mm the spacing opens up. Dahlvin is about 129mm, from a 58mm eye and a 13mm bridge. Artoa.88x, a sunglass, is about 132mm, from a 57mm eye and an 18mm bridge. Dahlvin has the larger eye and is still about 3mm narrower across the front than Artoa.88x, because its bridge is 5mm tighter.

So the stock falls into two groups with a six-millimetre gap between them: a cluster from about 119mm to about 120mm, and a spread from about 126mm to about 132mm. If the pair you wear now measures around 120mm across the front and sits right, the first group is where to start. If it measures 126mm or more, look at the second group.

Some are metal alone. Lunari in silver is a faceted geometric front at 51-18-145, and its listing makes the argument for the material: in metal the rim can stay this fine and still hold a lens square. Dahlvin's own listing calls it rimless, so the rose gold you see is the bridge, the mounts and the temples rather than a surround.

Sahvana, Okulus and Artoa.88x are acetate and titanium together. The division of labour is the same in each, and the listings say so — the metal holds the line, the acetate carries the colour. That is why the colour names on these frames read as pairs. Black Glass with White Gold. Yellow Gold with Crystal Pine. Waylun is acetate alone, in Crystal Night.

A word on the gold in those names. White Gold, Rose Gold and Yellow Gold are the colourway names our listings record. Read them as finishes unless you have the brand confirm otherwise. What the brand does say on its own site is that it uses one of the highest grades of beta-titanium, that the material is light, durable and extremely flexible, and that its beta-titanium is a third the weight of steel. Its FAQ defines titanium more generally as roughly 30% stronger and 50% lighter than steel, and cellulose acetate as a non-petroleum plastic made from natural cotton and wood fibres.

The acetate finishing is worth knowing about because you can feel it. The brand says it prefers to tumble its acetate frames slowly in genuine hand-cut bamboo chips rather than rush the polish, and our Waylun listing describes the same idea from the other end: the plate is cut, milled and polished, which is what gives an acetate rim its depth of colour. On a clear frame like Crystal Night, that is the whole effect.

Each shape does something different across the front.

The cat-eye is the Sahvana, at 52-16-145 with a lens 37mm deep, two millimetres under Waylun's 39mm, so the frame reads as a line across the face rather than a panel over it. The lift sits at the outer corner. It suits someone who wants the frame to be visible and is content for it to be the thing people notice.

The round is Okulus at 49-22-142 with a 41mm lens. It is a shape that tends to sit easily against a square brow or a strong jaw, because there is no corner to repeat the angle.

The geometrics are not a pair. Lunari is 51-18-145 with a 42mm lens, faceted in silver titanium, and lands in the cluster at about 120mm. Dahlvin is 58-13-138 with a 51mm lens, described in its listing as rimless, a wide and deep front. One is quiet. The other is not.

Artoa.88x is 57-18-145 with a 45mm lens, acetate and titanium, a sunglass with dark green to clear gradient lenses. Both are large fronts and both want a face with the width to carry them.

The square is Waylun, softly squared in Crystal Night acetate, 48-23-145 with a 39mm lens: a small eye, a wide bridge, and a narrow front despite the squared corners.

Three measurements decide whether a frame you like will actually sit, and our DITAs spread widely on all three.

The bridge first, because it does the most work and gets the least attention. Ours run from 13mm to 23mm, a 10mm spread: 13mm on Dahlvin, 23mm on Waylun. A narrow bridge on a metal frame usually means nose pads carry the weight and can be adjusted. A wider bridge on an acetate front usually means the frame rests on the sides of the nose itself, where the shape is cut rather than bent. If a pair slides down, the bridge is the first thing to look at, not the temples.

Temples next. Sahvana, Lunari, Waylun and Artoa.88x are 145mm. Dahlvin is 138mm, which is worth knowing if you have a long run from hinge to ear. Temple length is the most forgiving of the three, because a good bend behind the ear settles a great deal, but 7mm between 138mm and 145mm is not nothing.

Lens height last, measured top to bottom. A shallow front looks lighter and shows more cheek. A deep front covers more of the face and gives a lens more room to work in. The next chapter is about the second half of that.

We ship frames only. We do not sell prescription lenses online, and we will not pretend a measurement read off a listing is a fitting. What follows is what to check so the frame you choose here does not cause a problem later, whether the fitting happens in our Arlington or Dumfries shops or at your own optician.

Start with lens height, because it is the measurement that rules things out. The eyeglasses all arrive with demo lenses in, so the shape your optician traces is the shape the frame was built around. If you wear a progressive lens, depth is what the fitter is looking at. The Sahvana at 37mm and Waylun at 39mm are shallow. Whether a particular lens design works in a particular depth is a question for the person doing the fitting, with your prescription in front of them. Ask before you commit.

Dahlvin's listing describes it as rimless, which means the lenses are held at mounts rather than by a surround. That is ordinary work for an optician, but not casual work: lens material and edge thickness matter more than usual, and the lens is cut to the frame rather than dropped into it.

Artoa.88x is a sunglass, and its listing records dark green to clear gradient lenses. Putting a prescription into a sun frame is a conversation about tint with a lens supplier, not something we handle online.

One more thing worth knowing. The brand's own FAQ says its frames can be fitted with prescription lenses, and that its own website does not offer a prescription lens service. So the brand's own site sells the frame alone, and its FAQ points you to an optician or one of its own stores for the lenses. The frame comes first and the lenses are fitted afterwards, and that is the normal order for eyewear at this end of the market.

Every one is new and unworn. The table above gives each frame's price.

Stock here is single pieces. Each frame is one of a kind on our shelves, and when one sells it is gone. That is true of everything in the shop rather than a pitch about this brand. We stock DITA. We do not speak for it, and everything attributed to the brand in this guide comes from the brand's own site.

If you are choosing at a distance, do the arithmetic before you look at the photographs. Take the pair you wear now, find the three numbers printed inside the arm, add the two lens widths and the bridge, and compare that figure with the widths in chapter three. Land near 119mm to 120mm and you have the cluster to choose between, which makes the decision one of shape and colour rather than size. Land near 126mm or above and the choice is narrower, and the shape is largely chosen for you.

Then come in, or take the frame to your optician. Frames can be adjusted — a temple bent to the ear, pads set to the nose — and none of that shows in a photograph or a measurement. Titanium takes an adjustment well, which is part of why the material is used on frames built this fine.

If you want a second opinion on width before you buy, tell us which pair you wear now and what the numbers inside the arm say. We will tell you plainly which of ours are close and which are not, and if none of them are close we would rather say so than sell you one.