Lydia 034

The famous couture house of Christian Dior made its first appearance on the eyewear market in 1976 and it created a shock wave. Everything about Christian Dior frames was new, never seen before. I was working in Switzerland at the time and it was amazing how all of a sudden, the streets were full of lovely ladies sporting these revolutionary Dior glasses. Switzerland had always been quite conservative but here they took the lead, possibly because many Swiss ladies could afford these expensive glasses. The first generation of Dior glasses was in basic colours: blue, red and green. The next year brought yellowish / brown frames in the same solid style. From around 1980 the frames became a bit more airy and there was more diversity in frame shapes. Here Lydia is showing a splendid example from the early to mid 1980's. The glasses are bifocals and the reading sections placed quite low. This was probably done upon specification of their first owner, an elderly lady wishing to avoid breaking her limbs because of the strong reading add (+3.00). The prescription for long distance is rather mild so these may have been her first bifocal glasses. Note the way the blue wall in the background looks a bit darker through the lens than it is in reality.