Eyes on a stylish prize: optometrist competes to meet Elton John

A Saskatchewan-born optometrist is ditching her doctor’s coat in hopes her fashion sense will give her a chance to meet pop star Elton John.

She is in the running to become the next Style Icon.

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The prize includes tickets to Versace’s Show at Milan Fashion Week, a feature in Flaunt Magazine, and $20,000, proceeds from the votes go towards the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

Years ago, Dr. Diana Monea, a practicing optometrist and the former owner of the Eye Health Centres in Regina and Calgary, was visiting a friend.

At the time, that friend was battling breast cancer. While undergoing surgery was one thing, “when she lost her hair it was devastating,” Monea said.

So, she left the cancer centre and she shaved off all her hair. Then, she had another friend of hers make her these, “crazy hats” featuring feathers, jewels, and flowers.

Every day after work, Monea would visit the cancer centre. Walking up the steps, people in all the various stages of cancer would see her wearing these eccentric, “stupid hats and a smile would come to their face,” she said – including her friend’s.

Monea says at the end of her life she plans on either donating all her hats to cancer victims and their families or raffling them off, with proceeds going towards cancer charities. (Photo by Kelly Mulner)

While the friend eventually moved to hospice care, Monea got a call from the woman’s husband one day asking her to immediately come visit.

“And upon her deathbed, she asked me if I would please for the rest of my life, wear a hat in memory of her, in memory of those that have survived cancer and those that are family members that have lived with it as well,” Monea said.

While she was skeptical at first, Monea agreed.

“So, a promise is a promise and every single place you’ll see me, I have a hat on,” she said.

Now these hats, perched perfectly on the left side of her head, are just one component of Monea’s feathery, eccentric style.

For her, fashion isn’t about name brands. Instead, “it should always represent a cause,” she said.

Plucking chickens for fashion

Developing that sense of fashion, though, wasn’t the result of living in a big city or being surrounded by couture. Instead, it came out of a necessity to be creative while living on a farm right beside Grasslands National Park.

“Living in Timbuktu, Saskatchewan, where there really was nothing, you had to actually develop things yourself,” Monea said.

She drew inspiration from the Sears’ and Eaton’s catalogues she received in the mail.

“Whatever was on that Eaton’s catalog front page of the cover, mom would try to emulate and make and I would try to decorate it up,” Monea said.

Her uncle would come visit and give Monea’s mom old suits. In turn her mom, who was both a nurse and “an amazing seamstress,” would transform the them into something for the kids.

Taking after her mom’s resourcefulness, Monea found ways to accessorize without leaving their farm.

“I had this great love of chickens and so I would pluck their feathers and whatever else, and I put feathers on things,” she said.

But her creativity didn’t stop there.

Monea’s dad working as a trapper. She’d use clippings from his prime pelts to make fur collars for her dolls.

Even with all the fashion innovations happening in Monea’s household, a career in design wasn’t encouraged. With education being key for her mom, Monea gave up her, “fantasies to go and pursue a career of optometry.”

Going to Ontario for school, Monea eventually moved back to Saskatchewan, opening her business in Regina before moving to Calgary in 1999.

The entire time she kept up her passion for fashion.

Dr. Diana Monea said she’d describe her style as, “a little bit eccentric and offbeat, but really I’m not wearing it for anything but myself. I think that it represents what I feel inside.” (Kelly Mulner/submitted)

Designing sunglasses for Sir Elton John

For Monea, regardless if she’s at work, what you see is what you get.

She said the fashions she’s photographed in are what she really wears every day, and she’s unbothered if people don’t take her seriously.

It’s that boldness which has landed Monea into the quarterfinals of the Style Icon competition.

She’s especially hopeful for the chance to meet Elton after the year she’s had.

Her daughter’s heart condition left Monea worrying about, “whether she was going to survive.”

Then in May, her husband of 40 years, “died very suddenly from an aneurysm.” She said within an hour of talking to him like normal, “he was gone.”

After losing her husband, who was deeply involved in her business, Monea decided to sell her practice.

So, having this win would be, “the icing on a cake of a year that’s been probably a meltdown,” she said.

While it’ll be stiff competition against hundreds of people, Monea still has hope.

“Can you imagine an old prairie dog from Saskatchewan meeting Elton John and actually having this opportunity?” she said.

That opportunity would come with a few demands for the infamous singer.

While Monea may not be Princess Diana, she’s still a Diana and it’s part of the reason why she wants to hear John sing Candle in the Wind for her.

Once he does, “we’re going to design an amazing pair of glasses,” Monea said, adding how the pair would be crafted by a Canadian designer outdoing the specs John wore back in the 1970s and 80s.

The result would be an eccentric blend of fashion and optometry, just like Monea.

All she needs now is enough people to vote for her to win.