How To Wear Glasses With a Formal Dress: 5 Tips

Finding the perfect dress for a formal event is challenging enough. Add to that mastering your eyewear for the night, and you’ve got a whole new sphere of style decisions to make. It’s easy to default to leaving your glasses behind and squinting through formal occasions — or swapping to contacts for your next red carpet.

For whatever reason, we sometimes think of glasses as less formal or put together… but there’s no reason why the right pair of glasses can’t be at home at a black-tie event. With these tips, your eyeglasses won’t just look at home. They’ll be the fashion-forward accessory that takes your evening wear to the next level.

1. Consider Your Face Shape

Whether you’re hitting the Academy Awards or running errands on a random Tuesday afternoon, face shape should be your first consideration when choosing glasses. In general, there are five categories of face shapes: square, round, heart, triangular, and oval.

Different frames complement different face shapes. Square faces are best balanced by round or oval frames. In contrast, round faces look best in more geometric or angular frames.

Heart-shaped faces are wider around the forehead, so something like an aviator can help bring harmony. If you have a triangular face, your jawline will be the widest section of your face, so something like a cat-eye and other bold frames are your perfect pair.

Last but not least, the graceful curves of an oval face look best with geometric, square, or rectangular frames.

Your personal style really is your guide here! A frame may be technically correct for your face shape, but if you don’t like them, you won’t feel good in them. These are just general guidelines to get you started.

2. Match Your Vibe, Not Your Dress

You know what frame shape you want, but now it’s time to make more challenging choices. Do you want metal frames? Colorful acetate? Something a bit retro, or something edgy and rimless?

There are endless options, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of matching your glasses to your dress exactly. Your guiding light in choosing the right color and style should be the overall tone of your evening wear rather than matching exactly.

Let’s say you’re wearing a classic little black dress. Bold black frames with a black dress is a sophisticated look, but matching the tone of your formal wear is more important. Cat-eye frames like The Ella will complement your dress perfectly in any color.

Now, let’s say your LBD is more dramatic. Cat-eye frames might fight this look and draw the eye in a less-than-ideal way — instead, something modern and bold like The Murphy might feel more at home.

3. Balance Your Colors

Are you obsessed with over-the-top, super-colorful evening gowns? Then the simplest way to complement your look is by sticking to simpler glasses. You essentially want to choose what you want the eye to be drawn to — just like in choosing the shape and style. If your dress is gloriously loud, let it take center stage.

On the flip side, if your dress is simple and sleek, a bold, colorful frame may be the perfect pop of color. If you’re interested in wearing glasses that are a different color from your dress, pay attention to color tones.

A light blue dress and light green frames can exist in perfect harmony, but if you choose a neon green frame, it might feel out of place with your pastel dress.

4. Master Makeup for Glasses

One of the reasons many opt for contact lenses over glasses with formal attire is makeup. Makeup can make you feel more confident, attract more attention, and improve how others see you — all of which are good things in a formal setting.

Glasses don’t have to be an obstacle for your makeup application. They just change how you apply it. When you wear glasses with a formal dress, focus on statement-making lips to balance out your frames. Strong eyeliner and mascara will help to bolden your eye shape and ensure your glasses bring out your beauty rather than hide it.

5. Break the Rules!

Fashion has rules — there’s no denying it. That said, there’s one rule that’s more important than any other: the only way to set a trend is to break the rules.

We’ve focused a lot on how to complement and balance your formalwear, but the truth is that sometimes, the most statement-making looks fly in the face of conventional wisdom.

While these tips can help guide you toward the right frames for your next formal event, the only hard and fast rule is that you feel great about how you look.

The Bottom Line

For glasses wearers, dressing for formal events can be daunting. It’s one more decision to be made, and it’s common to feel like glasses aren’t appropriate for a black-tie event.

The point of formalwear is to look like the best version of yourself, and if glasses are part of your personal style and identity, then you should wear them.

If you want to wear glasses with your formal dress but aren’t sure how to do it, these tips can help you find the perfect frames. You’ll look your best, feel your best, and honestly? Being able to see clearly and feel comfortable are the biggest wins when it comes to preparing for a formal event.

Sources:

The Effect of Wearing Eyeglasses on the Perception of Attractiveness, Confidence, and Intelligence | National Library of Medicine

Choosing Glasses for Your Face Shape | Optometrists.org

The Contrasting Effects of Body Image and Self-Esteem in the Makeup Usage | National Library of Medicine

Dress is a Fundamental Component of Person Perception | National Library of Medicine