Hyesun Is the Australian Label Making Sunglasses Especially for Asian Faces

Until recently, I thought everyone experienced the pain of having sunglasses slide down their nose. I thought the constant readjustment of frames was simply part of the experience, as was dealing with smudge marks from my cheeks making contact with lenses. I was wrong.

I learnt that I have a low nose bridge, which means that a lot of glasses don’t sit right. In some sunglasses retailers, you’ll find a selection of products reserved for people with this feature, often labelled “Asian-fit” frames. 

To figure out if you have a low nose bridge, turn to your side profile and consider the tops of your nasal bones, which sit between your eyes. A low nose bridge means that the horizontal distance between your eyes and nasal bones is shallow and short, and a tall nose bridge means that the horizontal distance between your eyes and nasal bones is long.

Soojee Ford was travelling in Japan seven years ago and had a revelation when trying on glasses in an optical store. “Every single pair I put on, even without nose pads, were fitting,” she says. It might seem like a small feat, but this is rare for many glasses wearers.

It’s what led her to launch Hyesun earlier this year, which she deems Australia’s first independent low nose bridge eyewear label. The most common feedback she’s gotten so far is that people “didn’t even know that it was a problem” they were tolerating. “A global size or padding is not going to fit every nose shape,” Ford says.

If your glasses slide down your nose, pinch your temples or touch your cheeks, you may be wearing the wrong pair. Her range of four styles has been designed with inclusivity in mind, made for people who have low nose bridges, higher cheekbones or wider faces.

These glasses aren’t just for Asians (and not all Asians will fit them), but Ford says the imperfect term “Asian-fit” helps with search and findability as most people don’t know their nose bridge height. “People understand [Asian-fit], it’s simple language. [But Asians] are not a monolith.”

She notes that many people with Black, Indigenous, Middle Eastern and mixed-race backgrounds also find these styles more comfortable than the typical Eurocentric frames offered. 

The styles currently on offer include a ’90s-inspired oval frame (“I love chunky things and I love bold things, so we made it quite curvy and bubbly”), a cat eye design (“it’s like power dressing, but for your face”), an aviator shape and a square oval frame. Ford hopes to release new colourways soon. Hyesun’s future plans include offering polarisation, as well as prescription glasses. We’ll just have to wait and see.