You CAN Wear Cat Eye Glasses - How to Choose the Right Pair

I love wearing vintage cat eye glasses and modern cat eye frames with a vintage look.  Both versions go with my style.  I’m not talking about those modern square-ish frames that are being called cat eye, but frames (vintage or reproduction) with lenses that are in the shape of a cat’s eye! 

Me in one of my pairs of modern cat eye frames.

When I receive compliments from women on the specs I'm wearing that day (I have three different styles), I tell them that they, too, can wear cat eye glasses.  They usually don’t believe me until I let them try my own glasses on!   When I do that, my frames almost always look great on them. If you want to try wearing this fun style of eyewear, here are a few tips:

1.Try them on before you buy them.  Real vintage cat eye glasses are found at flea markets and antique stores.  For modern reproduction frames, go to an optometrist's office that sells hip eyewear. 

2. Bring a friend shopping with you who will be honest about how the frames look.  Then, try on as many as you need to until you find the ones that you love!

3. Select frames that fit your facial features. If you have small, delicate features, select smaller cat eye frames.  If you are like me and have a wide nose bridge, then you will need to select frames with a wider nose bridge. It looks odd if you try on glasses and the nose bridge doesn’t fit across your nose. It also doesn’t look good if the frames are too narrow for your face. I require frames that are wider to fit my face and have taller glass lenses.

4. Take the measurements of glasses that fit your face, so that if you aren’t totally in love with any you've  found in shops, you can search on the Internet. I know that I can’t wear frames smaller than 5” wide, so I kept that in mind when I bought the vintage cat eye sunglasses that are pictured below.

5. If you end up not loving the glasses after you have your prescription lenses put in, you can always have them made into sunglasses! However, vintage lucite or plastic frames can be delicate after so many years and may not be able to handle multiple lens changes.

Here are some modern brands that I like that have fun vintage looking styles:  Francis Klein and Selima Optique.  Select glasses that you like and then you might be able to convince your optometrist to order the frames, so you can try them on before you buy them.  I did that with my new everyday eyeglasses, and it worked out perfectly!

Francis Klein "Chloe" frames.  Image from Francis Klein website

Selima Optique "Jenna" frames.  Image from Selima Optique website.

You probably already know that you can find great vintage frames on eBay and Etsy. You can also do an internet search for them. That's how I found the sunglasses pictured below. There are many places to score the perfect frames!

Here's the photo of the glasses I purchased that Palette London had on their website. Dreamy, huh?  

I LOVE my new vintage faux BAMBOO cat eye sunglasses!!!!

Meow! 

Have fun and good luck in your search!