When GlassesDirect got in touch and asked if I’d like to review some sunglasses, I’ll admit I was hesitant to say yes.
Not that I didn’t need a new pair of sunglasses – on the contrary, I was desperately in need of some.
But with GlassesDirect you have to buy them online.
Nightmare.
Because I’m hopeless at telling what will suit me when I’m just looking at empty frames on a screen. It’s bad enough in the opticians – only when I pull them off the rack and put them on my face do I know what works and what doesn’t.
But, like I said. I was off to France and NEEDED some sunglasses, so I agreed to give it a shot.
Told to make free with my choice, I headed into the GlassesDirect site – reassured that most customers can take advantage of their Free Home Trial, where you order up to four frames to try on, decide which works best, make your order and send the trial frames back. Great service.
But I didn’t have the time for that, so i had to wing it.
But then, the sheer bloody brilliant genius of GlassesDirect fell open before me.
Create a Ditto, and you can see the glasses on your face.
Yes, really!
(forgive the lighting & the stupid grin, I’m writing this in the evening. The first time I did this it was bright daylight, and the lighting was MUCH better!)
And once you’ve done that by following a few simple steps with your web camera, you can do the most fun digital dressing up you’ll have had in ages. Look –
That’s not me in ‘my’ glasses – that’s me ‘trying on’ a pair of Brazen glasses.
So so clever. Ridiculously fun – and really effective. Being able to ‘move’ the image side to side, just as you would in the mirror in the opticians, is a total winner. I LOVE this site!
I ‘tried on’ loads of pairs, narrowing it down to four styles that I liked.
Because you can have any of the frames tinted to sunglasses, you can’t actually use the Ditto system to see yourself in a tinted pair. I got round that with a 20-second splodge with the paintbrush in photoshop –
I know. Hilarious.
But laugh it up, people, because actually, it totally worked.
Combined photoshop-tint-splodging with the unspeakably brilliant Ditto system meant that when my sunglasses arrived a few days later, I was confident they’d be perfect.
And they were…
I ended up choosing the London Retro Carnaby (in 9033 – Tortoise), with the Dark Brown Tint – £95.
But right NOW there’s a Knickerbocker-Glory-sized sale on – there’s a 2-for-1 offer, FREE sunglasses tinting (on prescription sunglasses too) and free delivery. Get shopping for summer, people!
