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What’s This About
Rimless and semi-rimless, oval, browline, rounded rectangular, and fine metal frames with a straight top line are the five families this page walks through for a face described as diamond, meaning cheekbones broader than both the forehead and the jaw.
If your glasses have rested on your cheeks before, the fitting questions matter more here than the outline does, such as
whether the lower rim clears your cheeks when you smile
how the bridge and any pads meet your nose, which affects the clearance you get at the cheeks
what the three numbers stamped inside the temple describe
whether you want the frame quiet enough to leave your cheekbones as the main feature
and many more!
If the lower rim rests on your cheeks, the fix is a fitting one rather than a change of outline.
Key Points
01Glasses sit around your eyes, so no frame adds width to a forehead or a jaw; what a wider front does is put a horizontal line across the face, which is a matter of where the eye travels.
02Bridge width is a frame dimension and temple length is the path around your ear, so neither can be aligned to your forehead, whatever older advice says.
03If the lower rim rests on your cheeks, that is a fitting problem with fitting answers, and the outline of the frame does not settle it.
04Some sellers call a rounded rectangular front a walnut, so treat the two names as one family and spend the attention on fit instead.
On this page
Decide what you want the frames to do
Men whose faces are described as diamond have cheekbones as the broadest measurement, with the forehead and the jaw both narrower, which is a distinctive outline.
Most guides respond with promises about adding width to your forehead and jaw, which glasses cannot do, so this page says what a frame actually changes and then spends its space on what to do if the frame rests on your cheeks.
If you are not sure which description fits your face, our face shape quiz gives you a starting label to work from rather than an anatomical verdict.
Step 1
Decide What You Want the Frames to Do
A frame rests across the upper middle of your face, between brow and cheek, so it has real influence over where attention lands and none at all over the width of your bones.
Aim one
Stay out of the way
A rimless, semi-rimless or fine metal frame lets your own bone structure lead, which is a good reason to like minimal glasses. Nothing is being corrected here, the frame is simply staying quiet.
Aim two
Draw a horizontal at brow height
A wide front or a defined top rim gives the eye a line to follow across the upper face, which is the honest version of what other guides call adding width to the forehead. It changes what you look at first, not how broad your forehead is.
Aim three
Solve the cheekbone problem
If every pair you have owned has rested on your cheeks or lifted when you smile, the useful brief is a frame whose bridge and pads hold it clear of your cheeks, which your optician can assess. Fixing the contact changes how the glasses look far more than any change of outline.
The one sentence to leave with
Glasses cannot widen a forehead or a jaw, so judge a frame by where it puts the eye and whether it clears your cheeks, and treat any promise of added width as a figure of speech.
Step 2
Fit First, From Cheekbones and Bridges to the Three Numbers
The three numbers inside the left temple, printed as something like 52-18-145, give lens width, bridge width and temple length in millimetres, and each one answers a different question about your head.
Bridge width is the gap between the lenses, a frame dimension rather than a measurement of your nose, and temple length is the path from the hinge to behind your ear, so neither has anything to do with the width of your forehead. Advice that tells you to match the bridge to your forehead is asking you to fit a frame with the wrong measurement entirely.
Lens width covers one lens alone, so the overall width of the front is both lenses plus the bridge plus the rims and hinges, and that total is the figure to compare with a pair that already fits you.
Why the bridge and the cheeks are worth checking together
Prominent cheekbones can sit close to the lower rim, and how the bridge and any pads meet your nose affects the clearance you get.
How a bridge meets your nose depends on its shape and projection as well as on the printed number, which is why the same model can sit comfortably on one man and rest on the cheeks of another with identical lens width. Makers treat this as a fitting matter rather than a styling one. Ray-Ban’s size and fit guide lists bridge options and adjustable nose pads as fitting features, and Warby Parker’s Low Bridge Fit frames are designed for wearers whose nose bridge sits low relative to the eyes, using larger or lowered nose pads, a lower, wider bridge and lens shapes meant to clear the cheeks, with temple arms set for a stable fit.
The four checks to run in the mirror
Warby Parker’s guide to how glasses should fit covers the consumer checks and names cheek contact when smiling as a fault to look for, while optician Sue Deal’s frame fitting article for the ABDO covers bridge contact, head width, side length, lens weight and prescription suitability.
01Smile properly. The lower rim should stay clear of your cheeks, and a frame that lifts when you smile will smear and mark all day.
02At the bridge, the weight should rest evenly with no pinching, and a metal frame with adjustable pads gives your optician room to raise the whole frame off your cheeks.
03Temples. The sides should clear the widest point of your head and hold behind the ear without digging in.
04Prescription. Rimless and semi-rimless frames hold the lens differently from a full rim, so ask your optician whether your lenses suit that mounting before shortlisting by looks.
The fuller explanation of frame measurement sits on our guide to glasses styles for men’s face shapes, so this page keeps to the checks that prominent cheekbones make urgent.
Step 3
Five Frame Families Worth Trying
Each family below is matched to one of the three aims, and the fitting trade is stated with it so the shortlist survives contact with your prescription.
1. Rimless and semi-rimless frames
A rimless frame is lens, bridge and temples with no rim at all, and a semi-rimless carries a rim along the top only, so both leave the outline of the lens almost unbounded and serve aim one directly.
What to check. Rimless and semi-rimless frames hold the lens differently from a full rim, so ask your optician whether your lenses suit that mounting before you set your heart on it.
2. Oval frames
An oval front is wider than it is deep with no corner anywhere, which gives you a shallow lens, a soft outline and a modest horizontal line, and the shallow depth is genuinely useful when cheekbones sit high.
What to check. A shallow lens leaves little room below the pupil for a varifocal, so confirm the minimum depth your lens design needs before choosing the slimmest front on the display.
3. Browline frames
A browline carries a heavy acetate top rim over a fine metal rim or an open lower edge, which is the clearest way of drawing the horizontal described in aim two while leaving the lower half of the frame light.
What to check. Many men like the top rim to follow their own brow, which is a question of appearance rather than a fitting requirement, and the lower edge is mounted the same way as family one, so the same question applies to your lenses.
4. Rounded rectangular frames, sometimes sold as walnut
Some sellers use walnut for a rounded rectangular front, so the two names usually describe the same outline, which is a rectangular front with the corners softened, keeping a straight top line without a hard edge at the outer corner. Check the actual shape rather than the name.
This is the family that serves aim two and aim three at once, since the shape gives you the horizontal line while the shallow depth keeps the rim off your cheeks.
What to check. Corner radius varies a great deal between models, so compare two fronts side by side rather than trusting either name, and look at how far the lower corner extends towards your cheek.
5. Fine metal frames with a straight top line
A thin titanium or stainless front with a flat top bar, often with a second bar above the bridge, gives you the horizontal line of aim two in a light construction, which is a different decision from the acetate browline above.
What to check. Adjustable nose pads usually come with this construction, which is the single most useful feature on this page, since your optician can lift the whole frame clear of your cheeks with them.
Diamond or Heart, and Why the Answer Matters Less Than It Looks
Diamond and heart are the two descriptions most often confused, and the difference is where the broadest measurement falls, which is at the cheekbones for diamond and at the forehead for heart, with a narrow chin common to both.
A pointed chin on its own settles nothing, so compare forehead breadth with cheekbone breadth on the same straight-on view before choosing a page, and read our guide to glasses for heart faces if the forehead turns out to be the broader of the two.
In practice the shortlists overlap, because both outlines lead you towards a frame that stays light at the brow or clears the cheeks, and the fit checks in step two apply whichever label you settle on.
Frame Colour and Your Seasonal Palette
Colour cannot add width anywhere, and a gradient does not narrow a cheekbone, but colour does decide whether the frame or your own bone structure is read first, which is the real choice on this outline.
If you don’t know your seasonal colour, take our quiz, and treat a seasonal palette as one styling aid alongside fit, comfort, lens needs and your own preference.
Depth and brightness vary within each family and by subseason, so read the four groups below as directions to compare rather than fixed rules, and judge the actual frame shade on your own face.
Spring colour suggestions
Spring palettes lean warm and clearer, which points to frames in caramel, amber, warm tortoise, golden brown or clear warm tones, and a clear or light frame is the quietest of the group.
Summer colour suggestions
Summer palettes lean cool and softer, which points to cool grey, blue-grey, mauve, rose brown or cool tortoise patterns, which tend to stay understated rather than drawing attention.
Autumn colour suggestions
Autumn palettes lean warm and softer, at whatever depth suits the subseason, which points to deep brown, olive green, bronze, copper, or warm tortoise carrying amber highlights.
Winter colour suggestions
Winter palettes lean cool and clearer, with depth varying by subseason, which points to black, navy, clear crystal, burgundy, or cool tortoise with black through it, and a fine dark metal frame stays crisp without adding bulk.
For a fuller reading of your own colouring, our Professional Seasonal Colour Analysis goes further than the four starting points above.
The Usual Warnings, and What They Are Worth
Four warnings appear on most diamond-face lists, and only the last of the four describes something that can actually go wrong.
Diamond-shaped frames. A front that repeats the angles of your own outline is a repetition rather than a fault, and the warning is a preference dressed up as a rule.
Cat-eye and upswept corners. An upswept outer corner sits near the cheekbone and draws the eye to it, which is a reason to skip it if you would rather not emphasise that area, and no reason if you like the shape.
Sharply angular frames. The same point again, stated about the corner rather than the whole outline, and it carries the same weight, which is taste.
Very narrow frames. This is the one worth keeping, and for a fitting reason rather than a visual one, because a front narrower than your head bows the temples outwards, lets the frame slide and drops the lower rim onto your cheeks.
Questions People Ask
Q. Can glasses add width to my forehead and jaw?
No. The frame sits around your eyes, so it changes nothing about the width of your forehead or your jaw. What a wide front or a defined top rim does is draw a horizontal line across the upper face, which changes where the eye goes first, and that is the whole of the effect. Judge it in a photograph rather than accepting the promise.
Q. Should the bridge and temples match my forehead width?
No, and it is among the most misleading advice in eyewear guides. Bridge width is a frame dimension, and how a frame sits depends on the shape and projection of that bridge, on the pads if it has them and on the tilt of the front; temple length is the distance from the hinge to behind your ear. Overall frame width is a head measurement. None of the three relates to your forehead.
Q. My glasses rest on my cheeks when I smile. What fixes it?
Three answers, in order of ease, are adjustable nose pads, which your optician can raise to lift the whole frame; a shallower lens, which reduces how far the rim reaches down; and a frame designed for a low nose bridge, which uses larger pads and a lower bridge to sit more securely and clear the cheeks. This is a fitting problem rather than a face-shape problem, and your optician is the person to solve it.
Q. What is a walnut frame?
A name some sellers use for a rounded rectangular front, which is why this page treats walnut and rounded rectangular as one family rather than two. If a shop uses the term, ask to see the front and compare the corner radius yourself, since the name guarantees nothing.
Q. Does the face shape quiz confirm my face shape?
The quiz sorts your answers into one of our navigation categories and gives you a place to start reading, and it is not an anatomical measurement or a professional assessment. Diamond and heart are easily mixed up, so compare your forehead with your cheekbones on a straight-on view before settling on a page.
Take the First Step With The VOU’s Styling Quizzes
Start your style journey with our resources. First, take our Face Shape Quiz for a starting point on your face shape and initial styling guidance.
Try our Seasonal Colour Analysis Quiz as a starting point for colour comparisons, and treat the result as provisional.
Check your body shape with our Body Shape Quiz, and your personal style with our Fashion Style Quiz.
Styling Consultations
If you would like personal help, you can book a paid consultation.
Our Professional Body Shape Analysis, Fashion Style Analysis, and Complete Image Transformation services are paid consultations; the shop page lists what each one includes.
Visit our styling services page to see our paid consultations.