The world through Leonardo Del Vecchio’s Ray-Bans

LEONARDO Del Vecchio, who died this week at the age of 87, was the stuff of capitalist legend. Put into an orphanage by his widowed mother because she could not afford to feed him, he went on to build not only the world’s largest eyewear group, EssilorLuxottica SA, but the modern eyewear industry as we know it.

He turned a functional medical device for eyesight correction into a luxury good — with the plus-sized margins that go with it. In the process, he made himself a fortune of US$26 billion — and became a financial and cultural force in his native Italy.

It wasn’t without controversy. EssilorLuxottica’s dominance attracted accusations of anti-competitive activity and price gouging. And Del Vecchio’s mettle was just as steely. In one interview I did with him in 2014, he dismissed Google Glass with the short phrase: “It would embarrass me going around with that on my face.”