Welcome to The Esquire Endorsement. Heavily researched. Thoroughly vetted. These picks are the best way to spend your hard-earned cash.
Bear with me here. I swear there’s a payoff. But first, I’m gonna tell you about A Work Thing I Did. A couple years ago, a little group of us around the Esquire offices got it into our heads that it’d be a fun idea to do a big ol’ story on what sunglasses best fit your face shape. It was illuminating, in two ways. First, I learned that finding someone with each of the many (many!) face shapes we as a culture have decided to classify is no mean feat. Second, I discovered that while our project was not for naught—there really are some sunglasses that work better on squarer or rounder or longer faces—there was also a cheat code.
The up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start of eyewear, it turns out, is the wayfarer. It looks good on everyone. And while many versions are available—including the OG, courtesy of Ray-Ban—there’s a very easy and affordable option that deserves your attention. It’s the Harris, by Warby Parker.
Parsing all this stuff is a hassle.
Round face? Square? Oval? Heart-shaped? Diamond? Inverted triangle?!? What the actual hell, right? It can be a task to ID your face shape, much less find and try and eventually purchase the frames that should—if your version of that face shape isn’t too far from the norm—best complement it. This is, I should be very clear, work that may well be worth your time. I wear eyeglasses throughout my waking hours, and I care about getting a fit off. I’ll do a deep dive on a forum or two to make sure my sunglasses are on the level. But shit, man. I can’t lie to you. My first true go-to pair of glasses was (you guessed it) a repurposed wayfarer. And it could be yours, too. And you know the reason why.