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Eyeglasses

249 frames

About Eyeglasses

Every frame on this page is one an optician has held. We buy in small numbers from fifteen or so brands, and almost everything here is a single piece: when it sells, it is gone. We hold more than three hundred eyeglass frames at the moment, which is not many beside the big online catalogues, and it is not meant to be. What it means is that nothing sits here that we would not put on a face in the shop.

Sizes run from the mid thirties to the high fifties in the eye, so there is room at both ends for a narrow face and a wide one. The quickest way to find your own number is to take the glasses you wear now and look on the inside of one temple arm, where you will usually find three figures: the eye size, the bridge, then the temple length. Eye and bridge together decide how the frame sits. The measurement that decides how it looks is the width across the front, from one outer edge to the other, and we give that on each frame's page.

Most of what we hold is acetate, cut and polished; the rest is metal, with a smaller group that combines the two. Shapes cover round, square, cat-eye and geometric, then rectangular, oval and aviator. Prices start a little over three hundred dollars, the middle of the range sits near six hundred, and the top runs past three thousand. Shipping is free and insured anywhere in the US.

These are frames. Eyeglasses arrive with demo lenses or none at all, and your prescription lenses go in afterwards — in Arlington or Dumfries, or at your own optician's. Returns run seven days with a fifteen per cent restocking fee; once lenses have been fitted, or the frame has been adjusted, it cannot come back, and a reduced frame is a final sale.

What size eyeglasses do I need?

Take the pair you wear now and look on the inside of a temple arm. You will usually see three numbers: the eye size, the bridge, then the temple length. The eye size is the width of one lens opening, and ours run from the mid thirties to the high fifties, so both narrow and wide faces are covered. If your current pair sits well, look for something within a millimetre or two of those figures. If it does not sit well, tell us what is wrong with it and we will read the measurements with you.

Do these come with prescription lenses?

No. We ship frames only. An eyeglass frame arrives with plain demo lenses, or with none at all, and your prescription lenses are fitted afterwards, either at our Arlington or Dumfries shop or by your own optician. Sunglasses are the exception: they come ready to wear with their own tinted, non-prescription lenses. One thing to know before you order: once a frame has had lenses fitted, or been adjusted, it cannot be returned, so settle on the frame first and have it glazed after.

Can my own optician fit lenses into a frame bought online?

Often, yes, and it is a normal request to make. Some practices decline to glaze a frame they did not supply, and some that do will not take responsibility if the frame is damaged during fitting, so ring yours and ask before you order. If the answer is no, we can fit the lenses in Arlington or Dumfries. Either way, keep the dates in mind: returns are seven days with a fifteen per cent restocking fee, and a frame that has had lenses fitted, or been adjusted, cannot be returned at all.

What is across the front, and why does it matter?

It is eye size twice plus the bridge: the width across the two lenses and the gap between them. Eye size and bridge decide where the lenses and the nose sit; the across-the-front figure tells you how wide the whole frame will read on your face, which is the part people actually notice. Two frames with the same eye size can measure quite differently across the front, because their bridges differ. We give the figure on each frame's page, marked "about", because it does not count the thickness of the rim beyond the lens. To compare, measure the pair you already own from the outer edge of one lens to the outer edge of the other.