Faded Days Gent 155mm XL Review | Sunglasses That Actually Fit a Big Head
7.8/10
Properly sized sunglasses for wider heads with good lenses and solid build, let down by a narrow fixed nose bridge.
Faded Days Gent 155mm XL Review
The perfect fit, almost
Every pair of sunglasses I have ever tried has looked slightly comical on me. Not badly enough that anyone would say anything, but enough that I would catch myself in a shop mirror and quietly put them back on the shelf. That is what happens when a standard frame is built for a standard head and yours is a bit wider than the norm.
Faded Days build sunglasses in four widths specifically to solve that problem, and they kindly sent me the Gent in 155mm XL to review. No money changed hands in either direction and everything below is my own opinion.
I have had them for a few months now, which happens to have covered the whole of this British heatwave, so they have had about as much use as a pair of sunglasses can get in this country.
Sizing and the range
The width is the entire point of the brand, and on that front the Gent is spot on for me. At 155mm across, the frame sits where a frame should sit, with the lenses centred over my eyes rather than pulled inwards and the arms running straight back rather than splaying out. It sounds like a small thing if you have never had the problem, but it is the difference between sunglasses that look like they belong on your face and sunglasses that look borrowed.
The range is sorted by width, which makes working out where you sit reasonably simple. Normal covers the 139mm Classics and the 137mm Aviators. Large is the 145mm Classics. XL, where I landed, has the Classic, the Sport and the Gent, all at 155mm. XXL goes further again with the Classic Pro, Arrival, Classic, Sport, Gent, Aviator and Scholar. If you have spent years assuming you were stuck with whatever the high street had, it is worth measuring before you assume you need the biggest option available.
The arms and the fit
The arms are excellent. There is no pressure at the temples, no gripping, and no gradual ache that creeps in after an hour like some frames give you. They stay put when I look down and they stay put when I push them up onto my head. Through a heatwave, with the sweat that comes with it, they stay put.
Everything about the fit is right, apart from one part.
The nose bridge
The bridge is too narrow for me and it is not adjustable, which is the one thing keeping this review from being straightforwardly positive.
I have a thick bridge bone, wider than most people, so this is partly a me problem rather than a Faded Days problem. The frame width is generous but the bridge has not been scaled up to match, and the result is that the glasses have to sit either higher on my face than I would like, or further forward. I have settled on further forward because it looks better, but that leaves a gap between the bottom of the lens frame and my cheek that I am always slightly aware of.
For a bit of context, I tried on my dad’s Ray-Ban Justins, which are a similar shape but smaller overall, and despite being the smaller frame they are more comfortable across the bridge than these are. A fixed bridge is a reasonable design decision on a normal pair of sunglasses, but on a brand built entirely around accommodating bigger heads, some adjustability or a wider bridge on the XL and XXL sizes feels like an obvious win.
If your head is wide but your nose is average, none of this will affect you and the Gent will probably be excellent.
The lenses
The polarised lenses do the job properly. Glare is handled well, they are dark enough for genuinely bright sun rather than the half-hearted tint you get on cheaper pairs, and there is no odd colour cast to them. Driving in them is comfortable and I have not noticed any distortion towards the edges.
They are also quite tough. I definitely have not been careful with them, and they still look great and haven’t scratched, bent or broken. There was however an unintentional torture test when these sat in my Civic for 3 straight days during a 33c+ heatwave. When I had realised, I fully expected to come back to a warped frame or a lens that had shifted in its seat. There was no deformation whatsoever, no clouding, nothing at all to suggest they had been sat baking in a greenhouse for 72 hours. Not something I would recommend doing on purpose, but reassuring to know.
Build and the case
They feel solid in the hand. The hinges are smooth with no play developing after a couple of months, and there is no creak or flex from the frame when handling them. The materials feel great for the price, and they feel like they will last well.
They also come in a hard case, which is a nice touch at this price. It’s convenient to be able to throw them in a bag or glove box and not worry about damaging them.
Looks
The Blackout with Black Smoke lenses is a good combination and the shape works. The Gent is Wayfarer-adjacent, but with a vertically shorter lens frame, so it does not come as far down the cheek as a classic Wayfarer does. That shallower lens height is a big part of why they look proportionate rather than oversized, which matters when the frame is already 155mm wide.
They sit closest to the Ray-Ban Justin in terms of overall look, and the all-black reads as understated rather than loud. They go with anything, which for me is the whole point.
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| Model | Gent, Blackout with Black Smoke Polarised Lenses |
| Frame width | 155mm (XL) |
| Lens | Polarised |
| Shape | Wayfarer style with shallower lens height |
| Included | Hard case |
| Price | £85 |
Pros
- Genuinely correct width for a larger head
- Excellent arm fit with no temple pressure
- Good polarised lenses with no colour cast
- Survived three days baking in a hot car without deforming
- Solid hinges and no flex or creak
- Hard case included
- Four width options across the range
- Reasonable price for a specialist product
Cons
- Nose bridge is too narrow for a thicker bridge bone
- Bridge is fixed with no adjustment
Verdict
Faded Days have built the thing I have been looking for and got almost all of it right. The width is correct, the arms are comfortable, the lenses are good, the build is solid and £85 is fair for a niche product that solves a problem the mainstream brands ignore. If the bridge fit me, I’d commit to these for as long as they would last me. A frame this well judged everywhere else should not be forcing me to choose between sitting too high and sitting too far forward, and because it is fixed there is nothing I can do about it.
That is a personal fit issue rather than a fault, though, and it is worth being clear about the difference. If you have a wide head and an average nose bridge, I think you would get on with these very well, and I would happily recommend them on the strength of everything else. If your bridge is on the thicker side like mine, try before you commit, or look at what else in the range might sit differently.
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