Quirky Chic

Some of the most drool-worthy wardrobes in town


Eclectic dresser and specs addict co-founder colette griplas likes her outfits to be one-of-a-kind
Thirty-two-year-old Colette Griplas is a specs addict — literally! Unable to find fashion forward eyewear for daily wear, the bespectacled Aussie beauty (though she took off her specs for this photo shoot!) decided to take matters into her own hands and co-found a brand, which now has some of the coolest frames in town. Specs Addict caters to both men and 
women, and offers free shipping worldwide. Colette moved to Dubai in January 2012 to co-found the company, which won the ADCB Ambition Award in 2012. Specs Addict’s website has a cool virtual mirror, which allows you to try frames and decide which suits you best. They have prescription glasses and sunglasses (starting at an affordable Dh550), and come in a variety of funky styles.
This spunky fashionista is a moody dresser, and often works around a particular look or a particular accessory, allowing that to be the focus of the outfit that day. She 
describes her style as vintage with a touch of urban, and likes mixing up her colourful and bold vintage dresses with a contemporary jacket or a scarf to add a touch of class. Of course, like every girl, she has also made her fair share of faux pas on the way to finding her style — the biggest of which, she tells us, was an electric blue vintage fur coat she bought in Paris, that she thought was David Bowie-esque at the time, but ended up looking like the cookie monster in instead. Not a big fan of shopping in Dubai, she likes to pick up her outfits from vintage stores in London and Paris, and mixes them up with her high-end pieces.
“Dress to highlight and flatter your assets,” she says. She believes in following the shape of the body, as opposed to blindly following trends. Speaking of which, one trend she wishes would retire are jeggings, which she considers 
ridiculous. She does like the neon trend though, and loves adding neon accents by way of a necklace, scarf, or even a nail colour. She prefers the classics when it comes to amping up her outfits. “There is nothing that glams up a pair of denim shorts and white tee like red lips,” she smiles.
- See more at: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/wknd/wknd_article.asp?xfile=/data/wkndfashion/2013/September/wkndfashion_September7.xml§ion=wkndfashion#sthash.NDpuXHa4.dpuf