Life through a colourful lens
right now, I’m seeing the world through rose-tinted spectacles. I don’t mean some form of wild optimism, I’m talking about a beautiful pair of tortoiseshell glasses with dusky pink tinted lenses from Loving Victorious Beings (victoriousbeings.com). ‘They honestly change your outlook,’ the PR told me. ‘Yeah right,’ I thought, until I tried them on one particularly grey day of lockdown. Suddenly, my world was instantly transformed with a luminous, magical glow – as if I had been thrown into a new Instagram filter called Happy Days.
Loving Victorious Beings, created by Lars Von Bennigsen (ex-husband of Alice Temperley) are colour therapy glasses that potentially have the ability to alter your mood and wellbeing. Far from the cheap luminous pairs you buy at a festival (when we once went to festivals), these are handmade in Italy with chic frames (I chose a very stylish cream and brown horn) and elaborately developed coloured lenses. Choose from La Vie en Rose (a wild pink), to Deep Orange (a rich caramel) and Purple Haze (dramatic violet). Lars tells me that he has been making mood-enhancing glasses for many years for himself and his friends, and the science is now advanced enough to share them with a wider audience.
So how do they work? In basic terms, light and colours are made up of different electromagnetic energies, which connect with our brain; if you change the light coming into your body it has the potential to alter your mood. Orange, for example, filters blue light emitted from our phones, which can impact melatonin production, so you sleep better. Studies have also shown they can help with anxiety and depression. Pink, meanwhile, is shown to influence serotonin and melatonin production to regulate bodily functions such as sleep. ‘Studies show that colours and light work not only through our brain, but also through the endocrine system and nervous system,’ says Lars. ‘As people experiment with the different colours, they will see they are an effective way of changing their state of being, whether they’re dealing with a grey depressing day or relaxing watching a beautiful sunset.’
My only hesitancy is their ‘out there’ look. While Loving Victorious Beings will undoubtedly be spotted on the coolest faces this summer, I can’t shake the Elton John vibe. I like to think I’m a bit more Jackie O when it comes to shades. ‘We have tints like Rosa and Orange Skies which are a good fit for more conservative clients who want to benefit from the colour therapy,’ says Lars.
Over the past few years there has been a quiet increase in the production of ‘light-management’ glasses, such as those at Blublox. They have red lenses to block blue light (wear them if you’re looking at a screen two hours before bed), yellow lenses to help with light sensitivity issues, such as migraines and SAD, and clear lenses to filter blue light from computers, reducing stress and eyestrain (available with prescription or non-prescription lenses).
Perhaps we’re about to see glasses in a whole new light.
@susannahtaylor_