Which Oscar Mamooi glasses fit you: seven sculpted frames by eye size and shape

Oscar Mamooi is an Italian eyewear brand. Its own site gives an address in Mestre, on the mainland side of Venice, and every frame we hold carries a Made in Italy tag on its listing. We stock seven of them across six models, and every one is $790.

What sets them apart is what has been done to the acetate. The brand's own site says that, with nature as the starting point, "advanced technologies, such as hot pressing, are used" to give life to the collection, and it describes "irregular shapes reminding the connection between man and nature, asymmetrical frames just like the unpredictability of icebergs yet smooth like ice". That is the brand describing itself, and it matches what sits on the tray. These fronts are not flat. They are cut and pressed into facets, ridges and steps, so a rim has depth you can feel under a thumb. Two of our listings put it plainly: the brand cuts faceted, crystal-like edges into the front, and that is what gives the frame its sculptural weight.

The range we hold is not large, and it is not wild in its sizes. It runs from a 48mm eye on the Joga to a 54mm eye on the Paradisia, which is about 115mm to about 126mm across the front. Every one of the seven has a 145mm temple. Six are cat-eye and one, the Bachelorette, is square. Six are acetate throughout; the Paradisia is described on its listing as acetate and titanium.

Colour is the other half of the design. Four of the seven listings describe clear and saturated acetate blocks meeting across the frame, which is colour blocking done in the material itself rather than printed on the surface. Three of the seven frames are multi-colour: brown, purple and peach on one Innocence, brown, yellow and clear on the Joga, crystal and burgundy on the Bachelorette. The other four are single colours, in black, milky white, lilac and red.

This guide works through the seven by eye size and by shape, because those two things decide most of whether a frame will suit a face. The table below lists every one in stock with its measurements and its price.

There is no size code in an Oscar Mamooi name. Each frame has a model name, and a colour number after it written as Col. and two digits. The Innocence in black is Innocence Col.01. The Innocence in brown, purple and peach is Innocence Col.04. Same shape, same 50-17-145, different sheet of acetate. The six model names we hold are Innocence, Bachelorette, Volta, Immature, Joga and Paradisia.

The names are not decoration. The brand's own site dates each model and describes what it was drawn from. Innocence, dated 2023, is described there as a silhouette that follows the wing opening of a butterfly, expanding outward into a glacial, finely sculpted frame. Bachelorette, also 2023, is described as square, impactful and geometrically sculpted, with architectural elements that generate depth. The site groups both in its Iceland collection, which it lists as seven models in all.

The other names are older. Volta, dated 2020, is described on the site as oversized, with crystalline and jagged shapes and lines branching out like dense solar rays. Immature, also 2020, is described as a cat-eye front projecting multiple parallel perspectives, with geometric volumes that reflect ice walls. Paradisia, 2020 again, is described as a return to the purity of nature, sinuous and enveloping. Joga, dated 2022, is described as the mythological dream of the flight of Icarus. The designer's own page on the site says he came to eyewear self-taught, after years as the door selector at the Milan club Plastic.

For a buyer, the use of all this is simple. The model name tells you the shape and the front. The Col. number tells you only the colour, and nothing about the size. If you have tried an Innocence in a shop and liked how it sat, the other Innocence will sit the same way, because both are 50-17-145 with a 40mm lens.

We hold one colour of each model except Innocence, where we hold two. Seven frames, six models, all at the same price. Every one is new and sealed, and every one comes with demo lenses in it, which are the plain blanks that hold the shape of the rim until your optician takes them out.

Seven frames, five eye sizes: 48, 49, 50, 52 and 54. Across the front, which is two eye sizes plus the bridge and therefore approximate, that is about 115mm to about 126mm. The spread is narrow, and it sits in the middle to wide part of what an adult range usually covers. There is nothing here for a very small face.

The small end is two frames. The Joga is 48-19-145, about 115mm across, with a 39mm lens. The Bachelorette is 49-19-145, about 117mm across, with a 37mm lens. Both have a 19mm bridge, which is the middle of this range and the bridge most noses take without complaint.

The middle is the two Innocence, both 50-17-145, both about 117mm across, with a 40mm lens. Worth noticing: the Bachelorette and the Innocence come to the same width across the front by different sums. The Bachelorette gets there with 49 and 19, the Innocence with 50 and 17. The same overall width, more lens on one, more gap between the lenses on the other. That is why two frames that measure the same can fit quite differently.

The wide end is three frames. The Immature is 52-18-145, about 122mm across, with a 30mm lens, which is the shallowest lens in our Oscar Mamooi stock by some way. The Volta is 52-21-145, about 125mm across, with a 40mm lens. The Paradisia is 54-18-145, about 126mm across, with a 48mm lens, and its listing carries a Wide tag. It is both the widest and the deepest frame we hold from this brand.

What to do with these numbers. Measure the frame you wear now from the outer edge of one lens to the outer edge of the other. If that measurement lands within two or three millimetres of one of the across figures above, the frame will sit about where your current one does. If it is more than five millimetres off, expect the frame to read as noticeably wider or narrower on you, which may be exactly what you want from this brand.

Six of the seven are acetate all through: both Innocence, the Bachelorette, the Volta, the Immature and the Joga. Acetate is a plastic made in sheets, with the colour laid through the whole thickness rather than sprayed on the surface. Because the frame is cut from that block rather than moulded, the pattern runs right through the thickness of the rim, as two of our listings note. Look at the cut edge of a crystal frame and you can see it.

The brand's own site is specific about the step that follows the cutting. It names hot pressing as one of the advanced technologies used to give life to the collection, and that is what produces the volumes. Our listing for the Bachelorette says the brand cuts faceted, crystal-like edges into the front, which is what gives the frame its sculptural weight, and the listing for the Paradisia says the same. The listing for the Innocence in black describes a plate that is cut, milled and polished, which is what gives an acetate rim its depth of colour.

Acetate has weight. That is not a fault, it is how the material holds a shape. As our listing for the Innocence in brown, purple and peach puts it, acetate holds an adjustment once an optician has set it. Two other listings add that acetate carries colour and depth in a way metal cannot, and warms to the face as you wear it. A frame with a front this deep needs that adjustment, so do not judge one straight out of the box.

The Paradisia is the exception in material. Its listing describes red acetate and titanium, and it is tagged acetate and metal. The listing sets out the division of labour: the metal holds the line, the acetate carries the colour. Another of our listings notes that some Oscar Mamooi models pair a thin titanium front with acetate brows.

Two frames carry a Crystal tag on their listing, the Bachelorette in crystal and burgundy and the Joga in brown, yellow and clear. Translucent acetate is not uniform across a sheet, so a photograph shows the colour but cannot show exactly where the pattern falls on the frame you receive. Black, milky white, lilac and red vary far less.

Six of the seven are cat-eye: both Innocence, the Volta, the Immature, the Joga and the Paradisia. One, the Bachelorette, is square. That is the whole choice of shape, and it is narrower than the colours suggest.

A cat-eye lifts at the outer top corner. The effect is to draw the eye upward and outward, away from the line of the cheek. It tends to suit a face that is rounder or softer through the cheek and the jaw, because the frame supplies an angle the face does not. On a face that is already angular, a cat-eye can read as a great deal of line. It still works, but the frame does more of the talking. None of these are small cat-eyes; every one of the six is a sculpted front.

Within the six there is real variation. The Immature, at 52-18 with a 30mm lens, is the shallowest and the most horizontal, a long low front. The Paradisia, at 54-18 with a 48mm lens, is the opposite: the widest we hold, and 18mm deeper in the lens, so it covers a great deal more of the face. The two Innocence and the Volta sit between them at 40mm of lens height. The Joga, at 39mm of lens on a 48mm eye, is the smallest cat-eye front here.

The Bachelorette is the one square frame. A square front sets a horizontal top line and squares off the outer corners, which tends to suit a rounder face for the contrast, and an oval face because an oval takes most things. At 49-19 with a 37mm lens it is also the most moderate set of numbers in our Oscar Mamooi stock, which makes it the easiest of the seven to wear if you have not worn a sculpted frame before.

Colour changes how loudly any of these reads. The Innocence in black and the Immature in lilac are the same idea as the Joga in brown, yellow and clear, but a single solid acetate lets the shape carry the frame on its own, while a three-colour front announces itself from across a room.

Three numbers past the eye size decide how a frame actually sits, and all three are in the table above.

The bridge is the gap between the lenses at their closest point, and it decides where the frame rests on your nose. Our seven run from 17mm to 21mm. The 17mm bridge on both Innocence is the narrowest here, and a narrow bridge suits a nose that is thin across the top and stands well out from the face. It sits high and it holds. The 21mm bridge on the Volta is the widest, and a wide bridge suits a nose that is broad across the top, or one that starts low between the eyes. The 18mm and 19mm bridges, on the Immature, the Paradisia, the Joga and the Bachelorette, are the middle of the range, and most noses are comfortable there. None of these listings records a low-bridge or alternative fit, so do not assume one.

The temple is the arm, from the hinge to the tip. Every Oscar Mamooi frame we hold has a 145mm temple, so there is no choice to make and no comparison to run. On most adult heads a 145mm arm reaches the ear with length to spare, and the spare is curled down behind the ear by an optician using gentle heat. That curl is what stops a frame sliding, rather than any tightness at the temples.

Lens height is the depth from the top rim to the bottom rim, and across these seven it runs further than any other measurement: 30mm on the Immature, 37mm on the Bachelorette, 39mm on the Joga, 40mm on both Innocence and on the Volta, and 48mm on the Paradisia. That is an 18mm spread, on a range whose widths span only 11mm.

One more thing an optician looks at with a front this thick. A deep, faceted rim sits closer to the brow and to the cheek than a thin one does. If you have a short distance between your brow and your cheekbone, the Paradisia at 48mm of lens will use all of it, and the Immature at 30mm will not come near it.

We ship frames, not lenses. Every Oscar Mamooi frame here arrives new and sealed with demo lenses fitted, which are the plain blanks that hold the rim's shape in transit. Your optician takes them out and glazes the frame to your prescription. There are four things worth checking before that happens.

Lens height first. A progressive lens needs vertical room for the corridor between the distance and the reading zones. Forty millimetres or more gives that room comfortably, which here means the Paradisia at 48mm, both Innocence at 40mm and the Volta at 40mm. The Joga at 39mm is a millimetre short of it. The Bachelorette at 37mm is workable with a shorter corridor design. The Immature at 30mm is shallow, and we would put it forward as a single-vision or reading frame. Ask your own optician about the lens design they intend to use.

Second, the thickness of the front. These rims are deep and faceted, and a deep rim can take an edge that a thin metal rim would struggle to hide. If your prescription is strong, that is useful. The lens still has to be cut to follow the bevel of a sculpted rim, which any competent laboratory will do, and it is worth mentioning when you hand the frame over.

Third, the shape of the cut. Six of the seven are cat-eye, so the lens is not symmetrical from top to bottom. In a strong prescription, more edge can show at the outer top corner of a cat-eye than elsewhere around the rim. Your optician can plan for that if they know it is coming.

Fourth, the adjustment. Acetate holds an adjustment once it has been set, which means it needs to be set. Have the bridge and the temples fitted before you judge how the frame sits.

We do not sell prescription lenses online. Lens fitting happens in our Arlington or Dumfries shops, or at your own optician.

Numbers get you to a shortlist. A face gets you to a frame. If you are near Arlington or Dumfries, bring the glasses you wear now. We will measure them, measure you, and put the two or three Oscar Mamooi frames that fit on your nose. The visit page has the addresses.

If you are buying online, work the table above in this order. Match the across-the-front figure to the frame you wear now. Then pick the bridge: 17mm for a narrow nose that stands out from the face, 21mm for a broad or low one, 18mm or 19mm for most. Then check the lens height against the lens you wear now. The frame size guide explains how to measure a frame you already own, and it is the page to read before you order anything.

Every Oscar Mamooi frame we hold is $790, new and sealed, with demo lenses in it. There are seven, and because we hold a single colour of each except the Innocence, each frame is the only one of its kind on the shelf. When it sells, it is gone. There is no size option to choose on any of them: one model name, one colour number, one set of measurements.

Frames ship as frames, without lenses. Shipping within the US is free and insured, and the parcel is signed for on delivery. Returns are accepted within 7 days of delivery, with a 15% restocking fee. We ship orders out; we do not offer collection in store.

Lenses are fitted afterwards, either by your own optician or by us in Arlington or Dumfries. If you want to talk a frame through first, whether the Immature's 30mm lens will take your prescription, or whether the Paradisia at about 126mm across is too wide for you, use the contact page. We would rather answer that in advance than have a frame come back.