Christian Roth (l) and Eric Domège (r). Photo courtesy of Eduardo Ford
 
NEW YORK—Designers Christian Roth and Eric Domège have stepped down from their eponymous and iconic brand Christian Roth, the subversive and acclaimed luxury fashion eyewear label founded in New York in 1983. Acquired by Dita Group in September 2015, as VMAIL reported at the time, the duo have since remained as exclusive design consultants for the brand for the last six years. "We are sad for the ending of this amazing chapter but maintain an immense amount of pride for our legacy of work and excitedly welcome the opportunity for change and newness,” said Domège, co-founder of Christian Roth Eyewear.

“We look forward to staying close to Dita and their brands. Our four decades of experience and passion to create for the luxury eyewear industry will allow us to consult on design, marketing, and brand positioning under our Miami-based Optical Affairs.

“Dita is extremely proud of having Christian Roth in our portfolio of brands,” said Micky Dhillon, owner of Dita Eyewear. “We look forward to maintaining an ongoing relationship with Christian and Eric, who we consider close friends and family of Dita.”

Since its inception in 1983, Christian Roth Eyewear has reveled in its hard-earned reputation as one of the world’s leading optical designers for subverting the conventions of luxury fashion. Roth, born in Germany, and Domège from France met in New York City and founded Optical Affairs in 1983 where their designs first appeared on the runway and at Bergdorf Goodman and were quickly hailed by the fashion community as fresh talents that would go on to change the course of luxury eyewear. 

Throughout the 80s and 90s, the brand collaborated on custom runway eyewear with such fashion luminaries as Chloé, Helmut Lang, Isaac Mizrahi, Jean Paul Gaultier, Marc Jacobs, and Rifat Ozbek, and worked with Michael Kors and Karl Lagerfeld in the new millennium on their lines of fashion eyewear.

These and other early successes earned Christian Roth an invitation to join the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1990—a first for an eyewear designer—and he became a founding executive member of Eyewear Designers of the CFDA (edCFDA) in 2014. The Christian Roth name has featured innovative silhouettes, techniques, colorations, flawless design, and craft worn on numerous tastemakers, and appears consistently in top international fashion publications.