Face shape is a useful starting filter for Valentino Chain Sunglasses, but proportion matters more than the category name. Contrast works: an angular frame on a round face, a softer one on a strong jaw. Face shape is a starting filter, but the width of a frame against your temples matters more. Frame width should match the widest part of your face, not your eye spacing. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is frame width, lens depth and nose fit. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: A.P.C.'s Les Navigator sunglasses at $183, and A.P.C.'s Les Lou sunglasses at $148. The first is the considered buy; the second is the one to start with. Frame width should match the widest part of your face, not your eye spacing. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Frames are the accessory people see first. Buy the shape, not the logo. From the second group, A.P.C.'s Nico sunglasses ($168) is the one that earns its place, because it works in more than one context without being restyled. The third group is smaller and deliberately narrower, frames, for the decisions you make after the main one. None of this needs the whole group. One piece from each is usually enough.

There are 20 frames here from 11 brands, $78 to $350, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. Aimee Kestenberg's Bondi Round Sunglasses at $78 is the low-risk way in, and ullajohnson.com's Lucien Sunglasses - Plum at $350 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. On valentino chain sunglasses specifically: the difference between the top and the bottom of this list is real but smaller than the price gap suggests. Nothing here is included because it is famous, and price is not used as a proxy for quality anywhere on this page. If you take one thing away: pay for the thing that touches your body and economise on the thing that sits on top of it.