A contact lens, comprising: a posterior surface; and an opposite anterior surface including a vertical meridian, a horizontal meridian, a central optical zone, a blending zone extending outwardly from the central optical zone and surrounding the central optical zone, a peripheral zone surrounding the blending zone, and an edge zone circumscribing and tangent to the peripheral zone, wherein the blending zone blends the central optical zone and the peripheral zone together to eliminate flexion points or sharp edges or both at the junction between the central optical zone and the peripheral zone, thus enabling separate and independent designs of the central optical zone and the peripheral zone; wherein the blending zone has a surface which provides a continuous transition from the central optical zone to the peripheral zone and ensures that the peripheral zone, the blending zone and the central optical zone are tangent to each other, wherein the peripheral zone has a surface that, in combination with the posterior surface, provides in the peripheral zone of the lens a thickness profile which is characterized by having a mirror symmetry with respect to a plane cutting through the vertical meridian, characterized in that the thickness profile is further characterized by having a substantially constant thickness in the peripheral zone along the horizontal meridian and by having a thickness which decreases progressively from the horizontal meridian upward to the bottom edge of the edge zone or downward to the top edge of the edge zone along each of the vertical meridian and lines parallel to the vertical meridian. a posterior surface; and an opposite anterior surface including a vertical meridian, a horizontal meridian, a central optical zone, a blending zone extending outwardly from the central optical zone and surrounding the central optical zone, a peripheral zone surrounding the blending zone, and an edge zone circumscribing and tangent to the peripheral zone, wherein the blending zone blends the central optical zone and the peripheral zone together to eliminate flexion points or sharp edges or both at the junction between the central optical zone and the peripheral zone, thus enabling separate and independent designs of the central optical zone and the peripheral zone; wherein the blending zone has a surface which provides a continuous transition from the central optical zone to the peripheral zone and ensures that the peripheral zone, the blending zone and the central optical zone are tangent to each other, wherein the peripheral zone has a surface that, in combination with the posterior surface, provides in the peripheral zone of the lens a thickness profile which is characterized by having a mirror symmetry with respect to a plane cutting through the vertical meridian, characterized in that the thickness profile is further characterized by having a substantially constant thickness in the peripheral zone along the horizontal meridian and by having a thickness which decreases progressively from the horizontal meridian upward to the bottom edge of the edge zone or downward to the top edge of the edge zone along each of the vertical meridian and lines parallel to the vertical meridian.