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  • Home try-on: five frames, five days, no charge - ask our opticians
Clearline
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Clearline Optical · Brooklyn, NY

See clearly.

Acetate and titanium frames drawn in our Gowanus studio, fitted with lenses surfaced in our own lab. Every optical frame includes single vision lenses, and every frame comes in three widths, measured in millimetres.

Shop opticalShop sunglasses
Harlow round acetate frames in black on an off-white ground
Lido oversized sunglasses with dark grey lenses
Lens 49mm21Shown: Harlow · 49□21-145
  • 1

    Lenses included

    Single vision lenses with anti-glare and scratch coating come with every optical frame.

  • 2

    Measured in millimetres

    Lens, bridge and temple sizes on every frame, in three widths, so you can match the pair you own.

  • 3

    Two-year frame warranty

    Hinges, screws, nose pads and adjustments are free for as long as the warranty runs.

Start with
the shape

Every frame is tagged by shape and material, so the filters on each collection work the way an optician would sort a tray.

MaterialAcetateBio-acetateTitaniumStainless steelTR90

Most worn

Every frame

Fit guide

Three widths,
in millimetres

The three numbers printed inside the temple of the pair you already own are lens width, bridge and temple length. Match the first one to a width below.

ABC

A · lens width   B · bridge   C · temple length (along the arm)

  • 46-55mmNarrowSmaller faces, close-set eyes, lower bridges.
  • 48-57mmMediumWhere most people land. Start here if unsure.
  • 50-59mmWideBroader faces and anyone who finds frames pinch at the temple.

Measured on the bench

Pick a lens

Every optical frame is offered with these four lenses at no extra charge - choose one on the product page.

  • 01

    Non-prescription

    Plain lenses with anti-glare and scratch coat - for the frame, not the correction.

  • 02

    Single vision

    Your distance or reading prescription, surfaced and edged in our Brooklyn lab.

  • 03

    Blue-light

    Filters part of the blue-violet band from screens, with a stronger glare coat.

  • 04

    Sun

    Polarised category 3, UV400. Plain or made up in your prescription.

Home try-on programme

Five frames.
Five days.
No charge.

A service run by our opticians, not a checkout option: tell us what you wear now and we will post a box of five frames anywhere in the continental US, with a prepaid label for the return.

Ask an optician
  1. 1Pick fiveChoose up to five frames with an optician by phone, video or email.
  2. 2Wear themLive with them for five days. The lid of the box is a fit ruler.
  3. 3Send backReturn all five on the prepaid label and order the one you liked.

Collections

See all
Lens edging machines and trays of finished lenses in the Clearline lab

The lab

Lenses cut ten blocks from where you are reading this

Our optical lab sits behind the studio on Union Street. Every prescription is surfaced, edged to the frame and checked twice on a lensmeter by a licensed optician before it ships - which is how we can promise a pair in ten business days and stand behind it if it is not right.

Inside the lab
A frame measured with callipers beside a printed fit chart

Fit

Three widths, because faces are not one size

Every Clearline frame is cut in Narrow, Medium and Wide. The difference is two or three millimetres per lens, which sounds small and is the whole difference between a frame that sits level and one that slides. Our opticians will measure you by video in ten minutes.

Talk to an optician

Just drawn

New arrivals

Since 2014

An optician’s shop that draws its own frames

Clearline started as a two-chair optician on Union Street in Gowanus. We spent our first years fitting other people’s frames and listening to what went wrong: bridges that pinched, temples that ran short, a single size made to fit an average face nobody actually has.

So we started drawing our own. Today we design every frame in the studio upstairs, have them cut from Italian acetate and Japanese titanium, and fit the lenses in our own lab downstairs. We still adjust every pair by hand before it leaves.

Opened on Union Street
2014
Widths of every frame
3
Business days, lab to door
10
The Clearline studio and shop on Union Street, Brooklyn

Worn, then reviewed

4.8 average from 3,430 reviews

  • “I have a narrow face and a strong prescription, and this is the first time a pair has arrived that sits level without a trip back to the shop.”
    Dana OkaforHarlow, Narrow · 47mm
  • “The try-on box came with a ruler printed on the lid. I measured my old pair, matched it to the Medium, and got it right first time.”
    Theo MarchettiBergen, Medium · 50mm
  • “They adjusted my son’s Pips three times in a year and never charged. The frames have survived a playground and a dog.”
    Ruth AbernathyPip Kids parent

  • Rated 5 out of 5

    Finally, a Narrow that is narrow

    I measured my old pair against the chart, ordered the Harlow in Narrow and it sits level for the first time in years. The lenses were ready in eight business days.

    Dana O. · Brooklyn, NY

  • Rated 5 out of 5

    The try-on box is the right idea

    Five frames in a box with a ruler on the lid. I wore them around the house for three days, sent four back with the prepaid label and kept the Bergen. No charge for any of it.

    Theo M. · Chicago, IL

  • Rated 4 out of 5

    Great aviators, long wait for Rx

    The Kepler is light and the polarised lenses are excellent on the lake. Prescription sun took twelve business days rather than ten, but they emailed me before I had to ask.

    Priya S. · Austin, TX

  • Rated 5 out of 5

    Survived a seven-year-old

    My son has sat on his Pips, dropped them off a slide and handed them to the dog. Bent back every time, and the free adjustment by post took four days.

    Ruth A. · Portland, ME