Diane Pilotte has been in the eye business for as long as she can remember. “My father was also an optician, and when I was little, maybe five or six, I used to go do house calls with him,” says the owner of Diane Pilotte Opticienne.
While her father had his boutique, the lab where he cut the lenses was at home. “I’ve always been sort of immersed in it,” notes Diane. She recalls that when the time came to choose a career she “didn’t give much thought to anything else. It’s what I wanted to do. And I still love it.”
These days, Diane has her own boutique that specializes in frames that are “a little different and hard to find.” The wonderfully retro neon sign in the shape of cat-eye glasses in the window is certainly a reflection of Diane's desire to offer her clients something unique and fresh. “I travel a lot,” she explains. “Paris in the fall, and New York in the spring. It’s incredible, the amount of frames, as far as the eye can see. We look for more exclusive designers, often independent ones, and we try to set ourselves apart by offering styles that are not available everywhere.” Tag Heuer, Lafont, Cazal, and Volte Face are but a few of the brands you might find at Diane Pilotte.