• Tendances

    Wooden glasses: 15 stylish designs to try

    A little less ordinary yet no less comfortable (and perhaps even more so), wooden glasses are gaining in popularity and brands have started competing to bring out designs each more surprising than the last. From models made from raw wood to more refined designs, check out 15 of our favorites.

    Why wear wooden glasses?

    Wood has a special charm: authentic and warm, it looks original without being ostentatious. Wooden glasses are also very comfortable to wear and don’t have the chilly feeling that metal can.

    Designs are also getting more and more inventive and come in a range of colors. Some mix in materials like acetate or titanium to lighten the wood and give it finessed edge, and each is entirely unique due to the natural variations in the wood’s grain. Often made by hand, wooden glasses are artisanal pieces with a price tag to match, and their slight fragility means they need to be handled a bit more carefully than more classic pairs.

    Are wooden glasses really more eco-responsible?

    It’s easy to think that making glasses from wood makes them better for the environment because wood is a natural material. It is of course biodegradable and is one of the materials that needs the least amount of energy in its production. But not all wooden frames are equal when it comes to their environmental impact. If your top priority for your glasses is to be eco-conscious, there are several things to think about. Ask your optician about how different glasses brands work to protect the environment. Check where the wood came from: the best is from sustainably managed forests. And when it comes to protecting frames from breaking down over time, some brands use vegetable oil-based varnishes over chemical products. If you like to buy French-made, look out for Shelter from the Haute-Savoie, In’Bô in Vosges, Wave of Wood in Loire-Atlantique, Sébastien Geslin in Vendée and VuDuSud in Occitan.

    Written by Josh Arnold