Beauty without borders

Many styles of glasses can compromise your sense of individuality by imposing their own character on your face. For example, cumbersome ‘Ugly Betty’ style frames can limit your make up choices, cramp your features and quickly become dated. Faces are as different as people and there is a choice of rimless eyewear to suit every person, becoming an integral part of the face without drastically changing it. Silhouette’s style consultant, Pauline Voce, believes the personality of the glasses wearer plays the decisive role in the selection of eyewear.

Silhouette distinguishes their fundamental looks: minimalist reduction, sporty casualness and classic elegance.

For a truly personal look, choose the freedom of Silhouette’s rimless glasses. Designed to be windows to the soul, Silhouette frames are sculpted to enhance your features, not hide them.

The three rules for the perfect pair of glasses –

Step 1: Forget Fashion, Focus on Yourself

Pauline Voce believes that many people wear the wrong frames for their face as they are influenced by fashion rather than their personal aesthetics.

“Your glasses are beyond fashion – they are a part of you. It’s fun to have loads of styles to fit in with fashion, but not everyone can afford to replace their glasses with every passing trend. We all need a classic pair that suits every trend simply because they are designed to suit you. It’s this bespoke individuality that makes Silhouettes rimless glasses so popular."

Step 2: Analyse your face shape

Take a fresh look at your face. The shape of your face will map out which frames will best suit you. There is a pair of Silhouette’s for everyone, so work with what you have naturally and your Silhouettes will accentuate your favourite features and detract the eye from any flaws!

Round faces are generally associated with wide foreheads and round chins; angular frames are therefore the best option as they add a flattering contrast. Deep glasses can make a round face appear short, so choosing frames that are as deep as they are wide is an impressive remedy for this.

Square faces have broad foreheads, wider jaw lines and angular chins. Curved frames will soften the structure of square faces so choose round or oval frames. Steer clear of harsh lines as these will accentuate square lines.

Heart-shaped faces typically have broad foreheads with angular chins so you should look at both angular frames and rounded frames to see which compliments your face best. The main rule is to avoid styles that are wider at the top than at the bottom as these can make you look top heavy. Oblong face shapes suit wide frames as they add structure and detract the eye from vertical length. Steer clear of narrow and round styles as these will exaggerate the length of your face. Oval faces are considered the most fortunate as you can carry off most styles … which is lucky but it makes it very hard to choose!

Step 3: Express yourself with a flash of colour

Rimless glasses are designed to enhance your best feature – your eyes. Framing them perfectly without detracting from their beauty, Silhouette introduces subtle swathes of colour across the bridge and on the arm. Working just like a sweep of eye shadow, Silhouette offers each style in an array of hues to compliment every skin tone.

Tips to remember

• Pauline believes the shape of the face should determine the shape of the lenses. In principle, the shape of the lenses should be different to the shape of your face.

• Eyewear should not dominate the face, it should harmoniously complement it. A face gives an asymmetric impression when the pupils are not centred in the middle of the lenses. For this reason, depending on your face type, you should ensure that your pupils are centred in the middle of the lenses.

• The upper line of the lenses of rimless eyewear should run parallel to the eyebrows. The eyebrow should be above the edge of the eyewear, with a maximum distance between the eyebrow and lens of one centimetre; the eyebrow should never be behind the lens.

• The bridge should be properly positioned, resting snugly on the nose. Positioned too high, the nose appears longer; positioned too low shortens the appearance of the nose. If the eyewear is positioned too low on the nose – commonly seen in older people when they are reading – the nose not only appears shorter but the person appears older as well.

• Rimless eyewear from Silhouette means a new aesthetic for the glasses wearer. Harmony and a sense of wellbeing are important when selecting your own personal eyewear.