In The Frame
Eyewear expert Emanuela De Dona aims to bring out her clients’ inner personalities.
“I’m all about switching it up,” says frame expert Emanuela De Dona. “If I could be today’s Barbie, ideally Barbie Extra, it would be all sparkles, glitter, fluffy stuff and colour.” Emanuela is the founder of Face Furniture, an eyewear and image consulting store in Sydney that specialises in unique eyewear styles for individuals who don’t want to blend into the background.
She attracts a creative clientele from artisans, doctors, writers through to corporate types looking to express their “inner character”, as Emanuela likes to say, while still prioritising facial features, lifestyle and needs.
“We connect by sight, and glasses help make that connection. I choose frames that help bring out my clients’ personality. I analyse face and eye shape, skin tone, hair style along with colour preference,” she says.
Emanuela grew up in the small town of Laggio Di Cadore in northern Italy, where her family worked in the optical industry. She spent summers working in a factory assembling frames.
““We express ourselves by the way we dress and eyewear is just another extension of this.””
When she arrived in Australia 10 years ago, she noticed there were few fashionable eyewear stores specialising in the limited-edition styles and niche brands she knew from Italy. She now imports a wide range of styles, from Elton John-like purple lenses and oversized Gucci cats-eye shapes, through to colourful acetate frames in an array of shades.
“I’ve always been into experimenting with fashion, the more alternative, the better,” she says. “We express ourselves by the way we dress and eyewear is just another extension of this.”
With her eye-catching frames and her cropped hair, Emanuela isn’t afraid of bold choices.
“My mother would dress my sister and I in the same outfits since we were only 18 months apart in age. I felt like I was often mistaken for my more popular sister Monica, so back in 1999 I decided to shave off all my hair so no-one would confuse the two of us again. It was only then that I started to feel attractive and realise that my hair didn’t define my beauty. I’ve kept it short ever since.”
