Viewpoint: Diary of a spectacle designer

This month my life has been dominated by the giant that is Disney. I say giant because the largest company in our industry is EssilorLuxottica – a tiddler compared to Disney.

The biggest eyewear producer and retailer in the world turned over $16bn in 2020, but Disney pulled in a whopping $65bn.

I once met a big cheese at Disney, (the former CEO) Bob Iger at a party with Carrie Fisher. I’d never seen Carrie intimidated by anyone or anything until that moment and I never really understood why – until now. Disney isn’t a company, it’s a universe.

My first interaction with Disney came when I was Carrie Fisher’s date at the Star Wars premier. I say date, Mrs Davies might not like that description, but I was invited to walk the red carpet with Carrie and I couldn’t say no. When I stepped out of the limo and was confronted by the bank of photographers, I lost my breath as we were papped. Imagine a bank of cameras the size of a double decker bus. Or maybe a swarm of bees crawling over a giant jar of honey, that’s what the photographers looked like. We moved on to the line of media waiting to talk to Carrie. I was holding her dog, Gary, and when she took him from me as a shield from what felt like locusts, I was left feeling a bit dazed, like a spare part, covered with slobber from the dog.