Not all accessories are equally important. You may not notice a woman’s shoes, but it’s much harder to miss her eyeglasses. They’re front and center.

Shopping for eyeglasses is something many of us have to do; about 64 percent of American adults wear eyeglasses at least part time, according to The Vision Council’s 2009 VisionWatch Eyewear U.S. Study.

Conventional knowledge will tell you to consider the shape of your face to guide what type of eyeglasses to choose. It’s a useful place to start, but there are more considerations. Your prescription and lifestyle will help decide the lenses you should get, and the lenses, in turn, can dictate what type of frames will work best for you.

There’s also personality to consider: Who are you, and what do you want to project by your choice of eyewear?

Your statement

Although they’re technically classified as medical devices, eyeglasses don’t just impact the way you see the world, they can also dictate the way the world sees you.

“As far as first impressions, your eyeglasses are a key accessory,” said Wendy Buchanan, an optician and image consultant based near Toronto.

She said glasses should suit your personality, especially as it relates to your professional life.

For example, Buchanan said someone who’s artistic can “really play with color.

“We go to those people because they have that creative skill set,” she said. “If we see them wearing frames that are round and red, or red and lime green, and they’re kind of funky, we think, yeah, that makes sense.”

Someone who is in sales or marketing, though, may not want to be quite so out there.

“There’s more of a natural business-casual look,” she said, that lends itself well to plastic-framed, retro-style glasses that continue to be popular.

For those who want to stick with a more conservative look, she warned against simply grabbing a wire frame in the hopes of avoiding style altogether.

“The common mistake people make, they think a thin metal, oval frame really has no style. They need to be careful, that can age them. They almost need to have a little thicker wire, something that gives them some strength without being overpowering,” said Buchanan.

Doug Winger, of Eyes on Wall in Bend, said metals like titanium are so light that wearers needn’t fear frames with more metal than they’re accustomed to.

Bechanan also warned about rimless glasses.

“Take someone who is in sales and marketing. They have energy,” she said. “If we put a rimless frame on them, it says nothing — which is why people wear them.”

But she said the rimless look often simply makes the wearer look older.

She said in addition to a retro look — including horn-rim and thick, dark, Clark Kent-style frames — color and embellishment is a bigtrend.

“We’re seeing a lot of design detail on the arms, seeing fun color combinations,” she said.

What if you’re afraid to add color to your glasses, lest you end up clashing? Buchanan said to look at your wardrobe first.

“We tend to dress in a certain range of colors,” she said. You shouldn’t try to match your glasses to your outfit every day, she said, but you can find frames that harmonize with the color family you tend to wear most.

The lenses

“Fashion aside, the optics and structure of the glasses is important,” said optometrist Michael Coffman, who owns Bend’s Coffman Vision Clinic.

One thing to consider is whether you’re nearsighted (meaning you can see better up close than far away) or farsighted (you can’t see as well up close). Coffman said your lenses will be thinner in the middle and thicker at the edges if you’re nearsighted, and thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges if you’re farsighted.

If a person is farsighted, Coffman said, some styles may not work well. For example, with partially rimless frames, a small, high-strength nylon thread usually holds the bottom lip of the lenses in place. A very thin lens edge may not be big enough hold on to the thread.

Coffman also said people with nearsightedness will have special considerations. Especially for those with a stronger prescription, choosing glasses with thicker arms may help mask a bulky lens edge.

Other important considerations with lenses are the materials. Customers rarely choose glass anymore, Coffman said; nearly all patients have moved on to plastic.

The most affordable option, starting at about $65 for a pair of lenses, is standard plastic. Polycarbonate, which starts at about $100, is thinner and lighter than standard plastic and resistant to shattering, so it’s often recommended for children. There are also different grades of high-index plastic lenses, which can cost $350 or more. These are even thinner and lighter than polycarbonate. High-index lenses may also be aspheric, meaning that the frames use flatter curves, which can help give the eyewear a more slim look, especially for farsightedness.

Once you select your lens material, you may be looking at an additional $100 or more for scratch-resistant and antiglare coatings. Coffman said antiglare is about more than appearance, it also improves the optical quality of the lenses.

Coffman recommended shopping carefully when it comes to products like scratch-resistant coating. He said some factory-applied coatings are put on before the manufacturer grinds the backs of the lenses into the correct shape. That leaves the backs of the lenses vulnerable to scratches from cleaning. He said there are several brands of coating that are applied after the lenses are ground, and are then fused on.

The fit

As a consumer, it’s hard to know what will work best for you, which is why Coffman said finding a good optician is essential. An optician is the consultant who helps the patients select the right glasses, while an optometrist is a doctor of optometry. Opticians will look at your prescription, and if you have special considerations, like an active, outdoors lifestyle, you should also be sure the optician is considering those concerns.

Some opticians are certified by the American Board of Opticianry. It’s not required to be certified in order to dispense glasses in the state of Oregon.

Winger, an optician himself, also stressed the importance of getting professional help in selecting your glasses. He said there are so many options, it can be overwhelming.

“We have 700 frames. It’s our job to narrow that down to a half dozen or so,” he said.

An important function of an optician is to help assure a good fit.

“Everybody’s different,” Winger said. Glasses that are too small on a larger head can be so tight they’ll leave creases in the temples. And especially with plastic-framed glasses that don’t have adjustable nose pads, a person will need to find a frame that fits the bridge of the nose right off the shelf.

Bifocals, trifocals and progressives

If you have a different prescription for reading and for seeing far away, or even three, there are additional considerations.

Many people are moving away from the traditional lined bifocals toward progressive bifocals and trifocals. In progressive lenses, the corrective powers change throughout the lens, with one portion for close work, sometimes one for intermediate, and another area for distance. The corrective areas of the lenses are blended invisibly, without the traditional bifocal or trifocal line.

“Most people are doing progressive,” Coffman said, “but 1 out of 10 can’t tolerate progressives. Some people, their brains just don’t like it.”

If you’re considering progressives, be sure to ask about warranties, in case you are one of the people who doesn’t tolerate progressive lenses well.

Also, if you plan to choose progressive lenses, Coffman said to make sure that the frames you choose leave enough room from the middle of the lens to the bottom. A too-narrow frame when measured from top to bottom won’t have the space to transition from one prescription to another.

Self-darkening lenses

Coffman said self-darkening lenses, which react to ultraviolet rays to turn prescription glasses into prescription sunglasses, have improved greatly over the years. The new lenses change color quickly and return to a nearly clear color when the wearer comes out of bright light.

The problem for many people interested in the lenses is that they don’t work well in today’s vehicles. Most cars have UV protection built into the windshield, and with the UV rays filtered out, the glasses won’t darken, even on sunny days.

More on eyewear

The Vision Council, which represents the manufacturers and suppliers of the optical industry, has a Web site with a number of fun and informative eyewear tips quizzes, plus a detailed guide to using your face shape to help select eyeglass frames: Eyecessorize.com