When you go to the optometrist and get an eye prescription, you usually talk about glasses as a combination of two key parts: lenses and frames.
Lenses
Lenses are the transparent pieces that you look through when wearing glasses. They’re customized to your prescription, which means that they refract light in a way that corrects your vision issues (the most common being nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism).
There are several different types of lenses and lens materials. Depending on your prescription, you might need single-vision or multifocal lenses, such as progressives.
Your eye doctor can point you in the direction of the right lenses for your eyes, and from there you can also ask about special coatings, tints, and features. For example, anti-reflective and hydrophobic coatings come standard on all Warby Parker lenses, but you have the option to add a blue-light-filtering coating or light-responsive transition lenses.
Frames
The frame is everything that surrounds the lenses—it’s the basic structure or “skeleton” of the glasses. It’s likely made of acetate or metal, and can be subtly chic or loud and proud with its shape and coloring.
Frames have many separate components that enable them to sit comfortably in front of your eyes.
Rims: The part of the glasses frame that holds the lenses. Often, the rims are what give the glasses their distinctive style. They can be round, square, oval, or any other kind of shape that will accommodate prescription lenses.
Some glasses have full rims, while others might be semi-rimless, which means the rims don’t go all the way around the lens. Glasses rims are also sometimes called eye wires.
Bridge: A crucial part of the eyeglasses frame, the bridge supports the majority of the frame’s weight. It’s the connective bit of material between the two rims that lays across the bridge of your nose.
The bridge is what determines the comfort and fit of your glasses, so you should make sure that it’s suited to your face shape. If you’re someone with a wide face, a low nose bridge, and/or high cheekbones, then a pair of Low Bridge Fit glasses might be best for you.
Top bar / brow bar / sweat bar: Sometimes, a pair of glasses will sport what looks like a second bridge above the first one. This bar is called a top bar, brow bar, or sweat bar. It’s both a fashion statement and a way to make a pair of glasses more sturdy.
