Sohaila 016

It was no less than a sensation when the couture house Christian Dior launched its first series of glasses in 1976. Everything about the frames was highly innovative - the material, the outspoken colors, the bold shape and even the "CD" logo on the arms. Nowadays this is common practice but Dior was the first in the field to put a visible stamp on their glasses. But what struck me most was the consistency in their design. One could always recognize a Dior as a Dior, even from the far end of the street. I was working in Switzerland in 1976 and all of a sudden, the streets were full of beautiful ladies sporting these revolutionary glasses. Switzerland was never famous for glasses - always a bit behind what happened elsewhere - so this was a fascinating turn of affairs. "Umwertung aller Werte".... My very shortsighted life partner Mia and I were penniless students and Switzerland has always been an expensive country so we counted our coppers and brass when we were there. During the previous year, Mia had started to accept her glasses after we bought her a giant purple pair called Piave. All our Swiss friends praised her for her striking glasses. After seeing the revolutionary Dior glasses in the streets and in the shop windows I talked Mia into an optician's shop and she tried the Dior frames. We left the shop bankrupt - Dior glasses were always quite expensive - but I was a happy man when we picked up the Dior glasses. The green frame had an oval eyebrow line but the rest of it was just as square as these red glasses shown here to great effect by Sohaila. This portrait is heavily edited to show what Dior glasses looked like on a sunny day in 1976. Those were the days of our life....