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Portrait of a Designer

By Paddy Kamen

FOLLOWING HIS GUT INSTINCTS AND

A SATISFIED ROMANTIC INCLINATIONS WORKS
WELL FOR THIS VANCOUVER-BASED
MAN: ERIC DESIGNER.

ric Dickstein was in the wrong job
– and he knew it. He also had an
instinct about who he should be
DICKSTEIN Efriend, Doré Chodorow.
working with, and it was a family

I was working as an apprentice hairdresser for
Doré’s daughter in Los Angeles and I was clearly
never going to be any good at it. Doré dropped
GREW INTO A into the store from time to time. I knew her
because she was my mom’s friend, and I was
aware that she had a great job in the eyewear
industry and traveled for business. ‘You should
hire me,’ I told her, more than once. ‘I can be
DESIGNER – your personal assistant’. Well, she didn’t pick up
on that, but within a year, she called my mom
and asked if I would be interested in working
in retail for Oliver Peoples on Sunset Blvd. and
becoming an optician.”
AND NOT Well—yes, of course he would! Dickstein suited
up and headed for a job interview with one of
the founders of Oliver Peoples, Dennis Leight.
“I was way over-dressed, but he liked me, and I
was ‘in’!”
A MOMENT That was 1996. At the time, Oliver Peoples was
a decade old and already a major player in the
industry. “Doré and Dennis were so influential
in my life in optical,” says Dickstein. “And
Dennis remains a close friend. He is a quirky,
TOO SOON Dickstein worked his way up in the Peoples
brilliant guy who doesn’t seek out the spotlight.”

organization to become marketing manager for

14 / JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2021 / www.ENVISIONMAGAZINE.ca /