Do Tiny Sunglasses Look Terrible on You? Try a Smallish Pair.

By,a features editor at New York.She received a 2022 ASME Next Award, honoring outstanding achievement by magazine journalists under the age of 30.
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Bella Hadid and Julia Roberts, both wearing sunglasses — The Strategist reviews small-ish sunglasses for 2018.
Be a Julia, not a Bella.

Stylish as they may be, I find it difficult to take smallsunglassesseriously. Perusing TMZ has become an exercise in balancing my fascination with celebrity culture with my instinct to giggle helplessly at all thebeautiful peoplewearing theteeniest-tiniest glasses.

Can I tell you a story? When I got my first car, which was used, I found a pair of sunglasses in the center console. The lenses weretiny— really miniscule, like sunglasses for an ant. Thenceforth, when a friend approached my car, I’d duck down, slip the sunglasses on, then pop up and stare at them, stone-faced. The joke killed roughlyevery single time.A pair of tiny sunglasses on a comparatively giant-seeming face — not the worst joke I’ve ever told!

If you want to buy tiny sunglasses, you should buy tiny sunglasses. But if you do, I humbly recommend that you buy a relatively cheap pair. Tiny sunglasses, like gigantic, face-obscuring Olsen-twin sunglasses, are a passing trend,and your sunglasses dollars might be better spent on a moretimeless styleand size.

If you aren’t prepared to submit to the siren call of thumb-size lenses, here’s an alternative: smallishsunglasses. It’s a nice compromise: They nod at their tiny, trendy counterparts, but are more likely to flatter your human-size face. The shape doesn’t much matter: oval, round, rectangle — so long as they’re on the small side of normal, they’re perfect for summer. I personally suggest either an oval or a rectangular frame. Both will make you feel like the heroine of a ’90s rom-com. We conducted an informal but highly considered vote at the Strategist and feel that you can get a cheap, fun pair to ride the trend out, but that a price range of $60 to $80 is appropriate — enough that the glasses will have some heft, but not enough that you are frightened to leave them on the beach while youswim.

62mm Cat Eye Sunglasses
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51mm Mini Cat Eye Sunglasses
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A thicker cat-eye frame, and in tortoiseshell.

Gia Slim Rectangle Sunglasses
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Crap Eyewear Paradise Machine Sunglasses
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Crap Eyewear the Ultra Jungle
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You can’t tell here, but these areglittery.

Crap Eyewear The New Riddim Round Sunglasses
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Little round ones — like John Lennon meets Lisa Bonet.

Komono Damon in Acetate Champagne
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These may be small, but they’re investment sunglasses: They’ll get you through several sunny seasons.

Le Specs Luxe Adam Selman x Le Specs Luxe the Last Lolita Pink Sunglasses
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The famous Lolita Le Specs are very trendy, but are also very cute in pink.

R.T.C.O Tern Sunglasses
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These are out of our designated price range, but they’re great and timeless and perfectly smallish.

MINCL/Fashion Small Oval Sunglasses
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For those who just want to get trendy with teeny-tiny eyewear: Wear these at the beach! Leave them at the beach! Order another pair, if you still want them at that point!

FEISEDY Vintage Slender Oval Sunglasses
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GIFIORE Vintage Retro Cat Eye Sunglasses
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