Angelica's advice

Short faces, such as round, heart-shaped or square, appear slenderer with thin rods.

Triangular, diamond and inverted triangle faces, though long squared, are not always enhanced by wide temples because they are very irregular and generally proportions dictate orientation.

After evaluating shape and color, you need to consider what is the effect of the glasses when your customer wears them. Again, the priority goes to visual comfort, to ensure that the focal point makes vision comfortable.

Next, it will be necessary to observe that the frame rests properly and without friction on the face. It will be necessary to check that:

• the angle of the lenses to the temples is always less than 90°;

• the rods of the glasses do not exert excessive pressure on the temples;

• the distance between temples and rods is proportionate and in harmony with the rest of the face;

• glasses stay comfortably on the nose without squeezing it;

• rods do not squeeze the ears or are excessively long.

In an inclusive world, more and more designers are required to ensure maximum comfort on all types of faces, from the slimmest to the widest.

In optics, it is well known that some models are not called "bestsellers" by accident but become so because they are best suited to represent different face and color types and different styles.

Do not forget to consider each single aesthetic feature such as nose, lips, asymmetries. Individual peculiarities represent uniqueness, and dressing that uniqueness is the real challenge. Knowing the rules is essential, but seeing beyond them is much more important.

Another aspect that deserves special attention in optical image consulting is color analysis.

This method is used to determine the shades of clothing and makeup that harmonize with a person’s skin complexion, eye and hair color, allowing an appropriate wardrobe planning through professional style consulting.

Color analysis shows how certain shades can enhance the visage when specific shades are placed next to the individual. The wrong colors are believed to draw attention to flaws such as wrinkles, blemishes or uneven skin tone, while the right ones enhance a person’s natural beauty, by making them appear healthier, fresher and younger.

It was Johannes Itten, Swiss painter, writer and designer, creator of the color wheel that bears his name, who first analyzed the effect of colors in nonverbal communication. The artist prioritized aesthetic and communicative goals by categorizing colors.

Personal color analysis reached a peak of popularity in the early 1980s, with a recent resurgence in the 2010s, after further development and promotion of different versions of seasonal analysis by image and color consultants around the world, until it has now become a popular topic, even in the field of optics.

The interaction between skin, eye and hair tones and that of the frame, in fact, can literally transform a face.

A detailed analysis of color requires the evaluation of several aspects:

• the temperature, which determines whether the skin undertone is cool or warm;

• the value, which considers brightness based on the amount of black or white and can be light, medium or dark;

• the contrast, which indicates the ratio between the value of hair, eyes and complexion and can be low, medium or high;

• the chroma, given by the purity of the color, its saturation, which can be distinguished into bright or soft.

Color analysis has synthesized the main characteristics into four types, inspired by the natural seasons, whose tones they trace.

Winter

Winter people are characterized by a cool skin undertone with medium to dark value, medium to high contrast and bright chroma.

The Winter complexion will be light-pink, olive or milky with black, compact brown, blue or emerald green eyes, and dark brown, darkash or black hair.

With such qualities, it is easy to imagine that eyewear styling for Winter subjects should use cool colors and aim to enhance the high contrast of this season by adopting brighter shades.

So it’s ok for black, deep purple, electric blue, lime yellow, emerald green or optical white frames. Gold frames , on the other hand, are notrecommended unless paired with cool lenses that balance temperature or restore contrast. As for sunglasses, total black is totally approved, but mirrored lenses in cool colors should not be underestimated.

Summer

Summer people present a cool skin undertone with value, however, medium to light, medium to low contrast and soft chroma. The complexion will be diaphanous or light pinkish with blue, blue-gray or sapphire eyes and hair in ash, platinum, beige or cool hazel tones.

The perfect styling of glasses for Summer people keeps to the natural tones of the season to best enhance them or can be elevated slightly, being careful not to overdo the contrast.

Black frames are preferred to soft shades such as lavender, raspberry, nude colors, avium and powder blue. Those in satin silver and soft white are also approved.

Also great are transparencies for sunglasses, especially with frames in ice tones, and slightly flash lenses are recommended.

Autumn

Autumn people are characterized by warm skin undertones with medium to dark values, medium to low contrast and soft chroma.

Complexion is maintained in ivory or dark golden tones, with possible presence of ephelides, with brown, hazel, brown-green, green or turquoise eyes, and hair ranges from dark brown to coppery to deep golden.

The perfect Fall eyewear palette draws from warm earth tones, capable of enhancing this season's soft, golden hues. Styling will move on colors such as forest green, turquoise, mustard and bronzed shades. Metals such as satin gold are great, enhanced perhaps by a salmon lens. For sunglasses, it is preferable to go for gold metallic frames with brown lenses, but all earthy colors will be able to enhance autumn shades.

Spring

Spring people present a warm skin undertone, with medium to light value, medium to low contrast and bright chroma.

The skin tone will be light golden, peach or ivory and, like Autumn, may have freckles. The eye will have cerulean, warm green and hazel tones, and hair will be golden blond, copper, brown, reddish brown.

The perfect glasses for Spring will have frames decided by the brilliance of color: apple green, tangerine, tomato red, military green, purple, are all fine. Metallic models will also shine in golden tones.

Same for sunwear: absolutely approved are lenses and frames that recall the yellow of the sun.

It is important to deepen color analysis with the idea of including it as a customization technique, but it is necessary to know the basic rules of aesthetic harmony.

The most important one refers to the need to enhance the gaze with a frame of a different color than the color of the eyes. For example, black eyeglasses enhance the blue eyes of winter people, and red eyeglasses go well with dark brown eyes of the same color type. Cool pink is suitable for enhancing the green eyes of the summer person, and salmon color draws attention to the green eyes of the spring type, while it is orange that emphasizes the browngreen eyes of autumn.

The eyewear does not have to pendant with the hair color. For example, never suggest a gray frame to someone with gray hair.

Tinted lenses are essential for making customized creations when you want to counterbalance color schemes. The lens spans a much larger surface area than the frame and is dominant, therefore, in cooling/heating an eyewear accessory.

Although color theory has evolved with the identification of subgroups (there are as many as seven for each season), in optics it is enough to be able to recognize the four main seasons and direct color choices based on smart insights that only experience can give.

The technique with which to confirm the color type is called draping and consists of juxtaposing drapes with warm or cool tones to establish the temperature, and then moving on to the next step, determining the color season dictated by the combination of value, intensity and chroma through the use of drapes that instead have bright or soft tones.

Glasses represent the quintessential accessory with which to define color type. When a color or accessory draws attention before the face does, it will not express harmony; conversely, when it does not stand out more than the face, the face will appear harmonious. This will create a fashionable look in the first case, drawing attention to the outfit rather than the personality. In the second case, all the rules of harmony will be respected expressing a stylish image.

Some people may exhibit characteristics on the borderline between one armochromatic season and another. Consider them flexibly, always also taking into account the colors the client shows they feel most comfortable with.

Recommending the right pair of glasses that will be noticed and remembered, is an image strategy that has well-defined goals. In optics, it is important to suggest timeless models that can be worn for all occasions, especially to address a visual need that is in perfect balance with the personality of the wearer. Fashion eyewear, on the other hand, are those that can be used for special life occasions and that make one feel comfortable by letting a strong personality be expressed. In this case, creativity steals the scene from harmony and breaks the rules for the benefit of a look that will never go unnoticed.

Optical image consulting certainly cannot delve into all the cornerstones of general image consulting, yet there is one aspect it can retain, albeit in a scaled-down way: beauty.

The optical center certainly does not have to turn into a beauty salon, but the accompaniment to the purchase can devote a space to reminding the client that the well-being of their eyes also involves taking care of the skin of the eye area, from gentle cleansing to massage with a good moisturizer.

Identify, from among the members of the optical center's sales team who shows the most interest in the topic, a "beauty advisor" who can elaborate and offer ad hoc advice to customers.

Make-up, too, can strongly affect the appearance of the eyes, so it will be useful to know two basics to counteract the optical effects related to lenses used to correct major visual defects:

• nearsighted people wear lenses that tend to make their eyes look smaller; so, a brightening eye shadow and a pencil stroke will help them to highlight and widen the eyes

• farsighted people wear lenses that make their eyes appear larger, so you will be able to redefine their shape with eyeliner.

The time has come to give shape to the information gathered and the evaluations drawn from the previous steps: the selection of the most suitable frames for the customer from those in the optical center.

Having reached this point in optical image consulting, we will probably already know which model, material and color to focus on. It will be important, however, to take care of these aspects as well:

• treasure the client’s words, the tastes expressed, avoiding frames that they might not like or would not respond to their habits;

• have the foresight to prefer brands that they already love and are comfortable with;

• if necessary, politely ask them to try different styles of glasses other than those they are used to;

• also recommend tinted and photochromic lenses or lenses with specific treatments to match the frames;

• explain the characteristics of each model carefully, so that the customer can understand that a choice calibrated to their personal needs has been made.

Whether a person opts for one, more than one, or none of the proposed frames should not cause us to consider the process of accompanying the choice concluded. Indeed, the evaluations we shared may not result in an immediate sale, but develop over time. What we said at the beginning of image consulting in optics still holds true: the goal is not to sell at all costs, but to become a point of reference for our client.

Appearance matters too, it really has to be said, so give importance to the presentation of the selected frames as well: show a maximum of 15 glasses and hand them out on a tray or couvette.

And after the choice of glasses? We have a wide range of lens customization. Staying with the aesthetic aspect of the optical solution, colored lenses should be considered, which can be perfect for either:

• renew a vintage eyewear model

• give a touch of personality to a new frame

• achieve a corrective color effect on a tired, irritated eye area or one marked by wrinkles and dyschromia.

Lenses can come in three types of colors:

• cold, suitable for cold complexions, when combined with cold-colored frames, they also succeed in cooling warm-colored glasses or universal color adapting to all complexions

• warm, suitable for warm complexions, when combined with warm-colored models, they are instead able to warm cold-colored or universal-colored frames and adapt to all complexions

• universal, suitable for pairing with cool-colored, warm-colored, and universal frames that are well suited to enhance all complexions.

Ask your clients to show you some of the frames sitting in their drawer, waiting for better times, and let them see how they can be fashionable again, with the little adjustment of a new pair of personalized lenses.