When Kanye West was prepping for his SNL 40th Anniversary Special set, he wanted to take his look to the next level
Enter: Dr. Mitch Cassel, an N.Y.C.-based optometrist at Studio Optix.
Just hours before performing his new single “Wolves” with Sia and Vic Mensa on Sunday’s show, the rapper recruited Cassel to custom-make some colored lenses to embody the subject of the song.
Courtesy Kim Kardashian
“They were specific. He just wanted to have his eyes to be more like a wolf — something that would pop and be more identifiable, something different. But he didn’t want it to look too artificial,” Cassel tells PEOPLE exclusively of the hand-painted contacts he crafted.
After an SNL makeup artist referred the eye doctor (his office and the show’s Studio 8H are both in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center), West went in for an examination, where Cassel took note of everything from the curvature of the eye to the size of the iris and pupil. While waiting on her husband and his new ocular accessories, Kim Kardashian West decided to try on a pair of her own.
“Those were hand-painted lenses also that we have a series of, and we are probably making her some future lenses that are variations of that,” says Cassel. “She was really interested in it and started trying on some lenses that we have.”
The Kardashian-Wests aren’t Cassel’s first celebrity clientele. He’s served as a cosmetic eye specialist on numerous Hollywood endeavors, from Orange is the New Black to Black Swan, and can call Leonard DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Matt Damon and David Bowie clients.
What do you think of the fashion contacts trend? Are you a fan? Share your thoughts below.
–Jeff Nelson
