A profile of Alain Mikli by Dominique Dyens*
Alain's life story? The memories of our teenage friendship in Montparnasse come flooding back... For ten of the most formative years of our lives, we were neighbours in a seventeen-storey apartment building that had as many staircases as there are letters in the alphabet. Alain stood out among our group of friends that used to meet together on Thursday afternoons. Tall, thin, reserved and voluble at the same time - sometimes even to the point of aloofness - Alain was already dreaming of a time when nothing and no one would ever hold him back. While time's passing sometimes changes the features of old friends, this has not been the case with Alain. Though the years have gone by and his frames have gotten stronger, the same Alain smiles back from behind his glasses. Such is the symbiosis between Alain and his work that it is impossible to tell whether it was the man or the glasses that first began looking like the other. His image is the envy of any ad-man!
Alain's first encounter with glasses thirty years ago was a case of "love at first sight".
Whereas I was still in the throes of adolescence, Alain was already seventeen and had begun studying ophthalmology. When he wasn't in class, his fingers were busy moulding plastic frames. His gaze took on a different cast. And while I used to inhale lazily on my cigarette, Alain was keenly absorbing the material's possibilities. Very soon afterwards, he told us his ambition was to design glasses. I thought of the hated pair of spectacles I had to wear in school and wondered what was it about lenses and frames that could be so fascinating?
Alain remained true to his dream. Glasses were like a foetus growing in his imagination. Idealistic and dogged, nonchalant and stubborn, Alain created his first prototype when he was still in his teens.
One evening, to cut short yet another of our extended conversations on the third-floor landing outside our apartment, my mother had a prediction for Alain. "Some day you'll become a famous designer and people will wear Mikli glasses all over the world!" I can still remember the incensed look he gave us as he replied : "Mikli?
But my name is Alain Miklitarian!".
In 1978, with his opticians diploma still fresh in his pocket, twenty-three
year-old Alain founded his company: Mikli Diffusion. With so much to learn
about the manufacture and marketing of his products, his working days ran
from early in the morning to late at night. In 1982, the year of my twenty-third
birthday, I had finished my studies and spent three months working with Mikli
Diffusion. I still remember the disorder of his 60 sq.m office with its worm-eaten
bare floorboards and cracking paintwork. But by the time it came to start
work on Monday, the office I was supposed to work in had been painted in
azure blue. Alain had spent the entire weekend, repainting the offices
in Mediterranean colours, evoking his Armenian and Lebanese heritage which
has given him the warmth and composure of the Orient. By now, Alain was
keen on developing an export business. He had just won his first order
from a Japanese client and had negotiated a deal to sell the surplus from
his previous years collection - at a tidy profit - to a Canadian optician,
now a treasured friend and long-time client. There was no denying his audacity
or, for that matter, his business sense. As he filed invoices in a bill
book and explained to me how his clients became his best financial partners,
I realized he already understood everything there was to be learned about
management. Very quickly, the self-taught businessman and visionary designer
established the pedigree of glasses. His art made a prosthesis into something
that was as much an object to see with as a fashion accessory to be seen
in. All of the greats of show business had been won over by the Mikli style
and concept. In 1983, Elton John wore a pair of Mikli glasses in public
for the first time. These sent out a ripple of excitement through the fashion
world and revolutionized eyeglass design. Alains greatest dream had finally
come true!
Two decades later, I am visiting the 760 sq.m offices of Mikli Diffusion France. True to form Alain is late for our appointment, so I have some time to prepare my notes. In 2000, his companys 220 employees racked up FF 220 million in sales. It has two stores in Paris, one in Dusseldorf, another in New York and three in Tokyo. More than a half million pairs of Mikli glasses have been sold around the world. I can only admire him for all he has achieved. He gives me a preview of the new Alain Mikli clothing range. The originality, insolence, humour and liberty of the designs are perfectly in keeping with the company and its employees. But has all this success changed him? Not much it would seem. Alains dreams have always been the force driving him forward. Everyday worries bore him. I glance at my watch. Time always seems to stands still for Alain. It is his way of escaping reality. I d expected to wait at least an hour before seeing him. As things turn out, I have to wait longer before finally entering his office. I rediscover the soft chuckling sound he makes as he laughs, the strange blend of softness and resolute determination and I forget my fears. So I sink into his time-space which is filled with projects. While Alain speaks to me of the past errors he has learned from, and how he now delegates so much more to his staff in order to counter his paternalistic tendencies, I sense his passionate enthusiasm for the future. I am observing him, and feel he is a little alone. Behind the mask of the go-getting CEO, the artists fragility is laid bare: his fear of being misunderstood or insufficiently accepted... Then, Alain begins talking about his new clothing line. His eyes light up, just like when we were teenagers, his enthusiasm intact after all these years. I am reassured. My eyes glance at my watch. I d forgotten how talkative Alain is when he is among friends. The story between Alain and Mikli is an exclusive love story in which each day is an eternal recommencement. *Dominique Dyens is a writer. Her first novel, La femme eclabousee was published in France by Denoel in September 2000. A second novel is slated for release in January 2002.