Eccentricity, mystery, transformation: Amman, the new limited edition by Bayria Eyewear, pays tribute to the legendary Marchesa Luisa Casati, a woman who turned her life into a living work of art.
Muse to the greatest artists of her time, friend and inspiration to Futurists, Dadaists, and Surrealists, the Marchesa captivated the world with her theatrical presence-marked by extravagant outfits, statuesque poses, and heavily kohled eyes, enhanced with dramatic tricks to make them even more magnetic.
She was portrayed by masters such as Giovanni Boldini, Man Ray, Kees van Dongen, Augustus John, and Alberto Martini, who exalted her ethereal and haunting figure, transforming her into a creature beyond time. Beneath the folds of her spectacular life lay a deep passion: she was the lover of Gabriele D’Annunzio, who celebrated her fiery soul and visionary spirit in his writings. Marchesa Casati did not merely live—she performed herself, every single day. She hosted legendary parties, true tableaux vivants, where she appeared through clouds of smoke, in extravagant costumes and accompanied by exotic animals, turning her residences into dreamlike and theatrical stage sets.
For this limited edition dedicated to her—Amman, after her maiden name—Bayria Eyewear has chosen a process as innovative as it is ancient. The front is not printed but sculpted: the excess material is mechanically removed, but the finishing is done by hand, allowing for bas-reliefs that cannot be replicated through industrial means. The result is a fluid, almost liquid design that shifts with light and movement, just as the Marchesa transformed her appearance to mesmerize anyone who crossed her path.
Adding to the effect, the eyewear features sculpted brows—a tribute to her iconic theatrical makeup. To intensify her gaze, Casati painted towering black arches above her eyes and even applied velvet ribbons to her eyelids to create exaggerated lashes, making her face resemble an otherworldly apparition. It is even said that she used belladonna eye drops to dilate her pupils, giving her gaze an even more hypnotic power.
The Amman limited edition, produced in just 200 individually numbered pieces, is crafted from deep, absolute black acetate—mysterious and intense, like the Marchesa’s macabre and decadent spirit. Marchesa Casati didn’t simply wear black—she inhabited it. She wandered through cemeteries at night, adorned herself with live snakes, and strolled the streets of Paris with leashed cheetahs. Her albino greyhounds—symbols of her eccentricity and singularity—were constant companions, embodying her solitary and enigmatic soul.
Her life was a continuous act of aesthetic rebellion, an endless performance poised between beauty and unease. That spirit now lives on in the sculpted essence of these glasses. Amman is a fragment of the myth of this eternal muse—meant to be worn, and cherished
