From the first lenses of the 1200s to independent designers: the story of round glasses

The first shape of glasses.

Glasses were born in Italy at the end of the thirteenth century. In February 1306 the Dominican Giordano da Pisa, in a sermon, said that the art of making them had been discovered less than twenty years before. They were convex lenses, for people who could not see well up close.

The first image showing them is in Treviso: in 1352 Tommaso da Modena painted Cardinal Hugh of Saint-Cher reading, with two round lenses in front of his eyes. For centuries, before glasses became fashion, the possible shapes were few: round, oval, panto, rectangular, octagonal, square.

In the twentieth century the round frame moved from the workshop to the screen. At the end of 1917 Harold Lloyd was looking for a distinctive trait for his new character, an ordinary young man: he chose a horn-rimmed frame, without lenses. Later, perfectly round metal frames would take the name of another face: “John Lennon glasses”.

Three ways to make a circle.

Two round frames may look nothing alike. The material, the thickness of the rim and the line of the top part all change.

How to choose them.

With round frames, the position of the eye matters: the pupil should fall more or less at the centre of the lens. That is why the lens width is the first number to look at. In the models in this selection it ranges from 41 to 49 mm.

Then the bridge: on a round frame it is often high and narrow, and it holds the glasses in place. Compare lens width, bridge and temple with a frame that fits you well, as we explain in the size guide. If your face is square, the circle softens it; if it is already round, a panto or a thin metal rim avoids doubling the curves.

Round or oval?

Take the Corbs by Lesca and the No.9 by 10 EYEVAN. In the Corbs, solid acetate makes the circle sharp; the reference to Le Corbusier's glasses is recognisable in that decisive line. Seen at three-quarters, what looked like an outline from the front becomes a volume beside the face.

In the No.9 the titanium profile thins out and the lens becomes oval: the line runs towards the temples and leaves the face more open. Here, though, two things change at once, shape and material. If you prefer the No.9, ask yourself whether it was the oval or the thin metal that won you over: the answer tells you which model to look for next.

The outer edge matters too. In thin metal it follows the lens; in solid acetate it can move quite far from it, with corners or a flatter top. On a round face, round frames are not ruled out from the start: try the circle, then the oval, smile and turn your head. You will find longer curves among the oval optical glasses.