When you first hear the name Collette Dinnigan, you can be forgiven for immediately picturing dresses and lingerie of lace, delicate embroidery and whimsical detailing. In the 20 years that Dinnigan has been creating must-have pieces, she has garnered a reputation as one of Australia’s most iconic and loved designers- and rightly so. It comes as no surprise then that the designer was able to recognise a gap in the market and create something fabulous: this time, it’s glasses.
Dinnigan’s latest move comes in the form of a prescription glasses collaboration with Specsavers, and while not a glasses wearer herself, she is certainly privy to the idea that glasses too can be stylish.
“Specsavers approached me and asked if I would like to design a collection for them, and because it’s something that interested me a lot, it worked,” Dinnigan told us.
“It wasn’t just about fashion accessories, because glasses are a necessity for a lot of people. Often when things are a necessity, the design process can be overlooked because people need them anyway.”
“For me, it’s really interesting to design something like that and make it beautiful, and just to be able to do something that reaches out to a lot more people and is affordable.”
Consisting of 23 different frames, the parallels between Dinnigan’s collection for Specsavers and her clothing are obvious. Girly, flattering and elegant, the collection consists of three different style themes: ‘Carnivale,’ with its bright hues; ‘Decadence’ with its strict attention to detailing; and ‘Romance’ with the grand aura that we have come to expect from anything branded with the Dinnigan stamp.
“The collection ended up with a vintage feel because I draw inspiration from things from the past, like fabrics and how things were made,” Dinnigan explains.
“Inspiration came from French markets, or vintage buckles that I have taken and put into the sides of the glasses and used as detailing … it’s very much my signature.”
While an expansion into designing glasses may not necessarily have been a natural next step for Dinnigan, it is something that she does not think will surprise too many people, and the end result of the nearly two-year long process definitely has something for everybody.
Collette Dinnigan for Specsavers prescription glasses are available in store now.
