Simultaneously channeling elegance and rebellion, the cat’s eye sunglasses first appeared in Maria Grazia Chiuri’s A/W19 collection for Dior, inspired by the Teddy Girls subculture of the 1950s
The latter part of the year in the northern hemisphere might not necessarily require the use of sunglasses – the sky, for the most part, is resolutely grey – but there is a case to be made for protecting tired eyes from even the briefest of winter sun (or, simply, shielding said tired eyes from the world). And no better way to do so than with Dior – particularly when the pair in question, the Dior ‘CatStyle’, is encrusted with 1,000 hand-applied Swarovski crystals. What better way to lift the gloomy seasonal blues than with the lucent glimmer of hematite crystals? Think of them as a sartorial SAD lamp.
This style was first spotted at Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Autumn/Winter 2019 show for Dior in Paris this February, part of a collection which paid tribute to the Teddy Girls of the 1950s, a British subculture known for their idiosyncratic uniform of Edwardian frock coats, denim jeans and beehived hair (plus plenty of winged eyeliner). The collection mined this rebellious spirit, clashing Monsieur Dior’s feminine house codes – full-skirted gowns, the pinched-waist bar jacket and the like – with punkish tartans, leather jackets, heavy boots and bucket hats (albeit each finished with a delicate black veil). “The simple act of choosing one’s clothing becomes a political semaphore,” read the collection’s accompanying notes.
And the ‘CatStyle’ sunglasses too evoke a spirit at once rebellious and elegant, recalling mid-century screen sirens and teenage runaways alike. Though, as Grazia Chiuri has proved adept during her time at Dior thus far, they are no simple lesson in nostalgia: a futuristic mirrored lens, sitting flush to the frame, makes the ‘CatStyle’ primed for decades to come.
Hair: Kei Takano using Bumble and Bumble. Make-up: Fiona Gallagher. Model: Tao Quan at Wilhelmina.