Women's Sunglasses
Buy and sell women’s sunglasses in Costa Rica.
A tortoiseshell cat-eye for the sand at Manuel Antonio, an oversized square for town, a fine gold-tone aviator for the car: women’s sunglasses run from Vogue Eyewear pairs up to Prada and Gucci, new and pre-owned. In Costa Rica they are lentes de sol, and the branded ones sit in optician windows beside prescription frames. That matters when you buy second-hand, because the same optician can tighten a hinge, warm an acetate arm back into shape or fit your prescription into a frame you found used, provided the frame is what the seller says it is.
Acetate, moulded plastic and metal frames:
what the frame is made of decides how a pair fits, how long it lasts and whether it can be put right. Acetate is cut from a block and polished, it feels heavy for its size, and in clear or tortoiseshell colours you can usually see a thin metal wire running down inside each arm. An optician can warm it and bend the arms to the shape of your head. Moulded plastic is light and cheap, it leaves a faint seam along the edges where the mould closed, and once it bends out of shape it stays that way or snaps. Metal frames, the aviators and thin rounds, have adjustable nose pads that can be set to sit right on any nose.
Cat-eye, oversized and the size printed inside the arm:
shape is taste, but size is not. Every branded frame prints three numbers inside one arm: lens width, bridge and arm length. Compare them with a pair that already fits you before you agree to anything, because an oversized butterfly frame and a small cat-eye can be far closer in size than they look in a photo. If you wear glasses, most flat or gently curved fronts can take prescription sun lenses; a deeply curved shield or wrap often cannot take a strong one. An oversized frame and a wide brim meet at the temples, so try them together if you wear both; the brims are in women’s hats.
Vogue Eyewear against Prada and Gucci:
at Costa Rican opticians a Vogue Eyewear pair sits around ₡60,000 to ₡75,000 new, while Prada and Gucci run from about ₡200,000 to ₡300,000. Vogue and Prada come out of the same eyewear group, and much of the difference is the name on the arm and the finish of the hinge and logo. That is also what a second-hand buyer pays for, so the luxury pairs that keep a real share of their price have clean lenses and markings that can be checked. A scratch across the line of sight is the one flaw nobody wants to pay for, whatever the label.
Hinges, coatings and the code on a used Prada or Gucci:
the arms should swing with an even, slight resistance and stay where you leave them; a loose screw can be tightened, a cracked hinge block cannot. Pairs worn pushed up into the hair come back with the arms splayed and slide down the nose. An optician can often correct that on acetate and metal, rarely on moulded plastic, and an eyewear chain from women’s jewelry, is a kinder place to keep them. Hold each lens up to the sky: a mirror or coloured coating flaking at the edge, or a cloudy patch in a polarised lens where the layers have separated, means new lenses. Then read the code inside the arm. Prada models start with SPR or PR, Gucci with GG, Vogue with VO, then a colour code and the size. Search it: the results should match the frame in your hand. Copies often get the code right and the material wrong, so a “Prada” with mould seams and no weight to it is not one.
Listing a pair with its code, size and case:
photograph the front, the inside of both arms with the code readable, and each lens against a white screen so any scratch shows. Say whether the arms have been adjusted and whether the lenses are original or prescription ones fitted later; a pair made up to your eyes is really a frame to anyone else, so price it as one. Include the case if you still have it. A woman buying a designer frame to have her own prescription put in will check your three size numbers with her optician before she arranges to see it, so put them in the listing and say if the front is deeply curved.