Forget Specsavers – I used a luxury online optician and I'm never going back to the high street

If you need glasses, chances are you'll have followed the same routine since you were young. Every couple of years, you'll hobble to the local high street, have your eyes tested and then pick from a humdrum array of frames to get your lenses into.

Fortunately, in 2025, that doesn't have to be the case anymore. The internet age has revolutionised just about everything else – and now it might have sorted your sight out as well.

Check out Fashion Eyewear here

To test this theory, I got a new pair of glasses from Fashion Eyewear. The brand is founded by ex-Harrods and Selfridges optician, Tej Johal, and is designed to offer a more user-friendly solution. But is it any good? Let's take a closer look.

Ordering glasses from Fashion Eyewear

The process of ordering your glasses is actually really simple. You will need your prescription to hand – it's really the only thing you can't do on the site – but that's it. From there, you'll need to have a browse and pick out your frames of choice.

There's a really wide variety of options available. Everything from £2,000 Cartier frames down to a £9 own-brand pair were offered at the time of writing, meaning there's something for everyone.

I opted for something in the middle, with a less costly pair of frames from Cartier. That marks the first big takeaway I have – you really can get access to a much wider array of killer brands here than you'd find elsewhere. All manner of noteworthy names are offered on the site, and a lot of them are much more reasonable than you might assume.

Finding the right lens

Then, it's time to add your lenses. The base offering is included, with various different levels sitting above that to add slimness and coatings.

I opted for a slightly slimmer profile to the lenses – something I always tend to do as my prescription results in some slab-like lenses without it – at a cost of £40. I also added something called a Mar coating, which offers anti-scratch and anti-reflective properties. That cost an extra £15.

It was totally worth it though, because the lenses themselves are a work of art. I genuinely can't remember the last time I purchased a pair of glasses where the lenses didn't protrude over the edges of the frames, so seeing them sat neatly within them was truly awe-inspiring.

I've included a snap of these new frames next to my recently purchased prescription sunglasses. Those didn't get any thinning treatment, and the result is a lens which is about 8mm thick at its widest part. I had simply assumed that was going to be the case for the rest of my life, so finding an alternative was really liberating.

Perhaps more impressive is just how affordable that slimming process was. To have paid just £55 for lenses which are sleek and coated with a protective layer is leaps and bounds ahead of the high street – Specsavers starts at £60 for thinning alone!

As the brand tells me, that's all down to the process. The equivalent to what I received would cost around £200 on the high street, because all of the cutting, glazing, and fitting is outsourced. That's not the case here, with everything handled in-house resulting in a smaller dent to your wallet. Neat.

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Wait a minute, Mr Postman

Another hurdle for these kinds of online offerings is speed. Sure, the high street isn't renowned for its record-breaking delivery speeds, but a few select spots can get glasses turned around in the same day – I learnt this the hard way after losing a pair to an Architects gig in Brixton many years ago!

Fortunately, that's something you can get from Fashion Eyewear as well. The brand is London-based, and if you happen to also be, same day delivery is possible for a £15 fee.

For those of us not based in the big smoke, fear not. Delivery is impeccably fast – I placed my order late on a Thursday afternoon and had the box in my hand before 10am on the Saturday. There's even worldwide shipping available, if you need to get them overseas.

Would I use Fashion Eyewear again?

It's no secret that most of us want to look good. It's the reason why we buy fancy watches, nice fragrances, Italian suits and crisp new brogues.

The idea of getting radical with your specs, though, is probably not foremost in the minds of many. But this experience has proven to me that it can be, without busting the bank.

Snagging yourself a pair of glasses from a luxury, designer brand is one thing, but doing so while not paying through the nose for upgrades and extras is the real selling point. Thinning your lenses or adding a coating is a genuine difference maker, and doing so on such a budget really takes the sting out of sorting your sight.

When I need a new pair – whether that's of regular glasses or sunglasses – I won't hesitate to go back and use this service again.