Silmo 2024 in Numbers
32,125 visitors | 2.6% increase on 2023 | 52% international visitors | 48% French delegates | 900 exhibitors | 75,000 sqm of exhibition space | Four days
Alpagota ▼
Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to bring a genuinely new product to market. Alpagota founder Gaetan Gaye says his watchmaking background gave him a view of the optical industry that was not tainted by experience, but there was awareness of some of its issues.
Waste from single-use lens wipes was a particular bugbear for Gaye, who was sure there was a better way. With the goal of creating the world’s best eyewear care brand, Gaye set about developing the highest quality lens cleaning sprays and cloths, with a completely new aesthetic for the optical sector. Let us not forget, the last innovation in this segment was to make a practice look like an 80s wine bar.
The aromatic Vision cleaning sprays come in three different scents – sandalwood and matcha, eucalyptus and patchouli, and green mandarin and cedarwood. The scents alone should give you the sense Alpagota offers something different, and the formulation of
the spray includes active anti-static and anti-stain ingredients.
The company says these ingredients restore the natural radiance of lenses for exceptional clarity, create a protective barrier against grease and dust, and prevent lens coatings peeling to make them last longer.
The aesthetics of the bottle and packaging are as high end as the scents, with coloured cylindrical glass bottles and spherical caps. They would not look out of place in a perfumery and would certainly stand out in any practice. The 30ml bottles are refillable and should last around 350 sprays.
Alongside the cleaning sprays, Gaye also wanted to create the next generation of cleaning cloth. The Japanese-made cloths absorb smears and impurities on the lens through effective capillary action and are made from SilkTech, a material composed of polyester and nylon that features an extremely high density of ultra-fine knitting yarns. Three colourations are available to match the Vision cleaning bottles.
Dance by Design Eyewear Group
The Dance design initiative is hard to pigeonhole. On one hand, it is an internal project among its French and Danish (DANmark and FranCE) designers that will not see the creation of a new brand. On the other, the project brings Design Eyewear Group’s designers from different cultures and artistic backgrounds to work with more synergy in a way that will benefit all of the group’s brands.
The first output of the Dance Design lab are two conceptual sunglass styles from Prodesign and Face à Face. Censur by Prodesign is the result of a design session where the traditional parameters of eyewear design were left at the door.
Taking its name from the black strip over a person’s eyes when hiding their identity, the Censur frame plays with sheet metal construction with a thick bar that penetrates lens forms to create a double bridge.
The oversized I M Perfect by Face à Face explores the philosophy of wabi-sabi, which embraces imperfection and things that are incomplete. To that end, the rimless sunglass sports a cracked edge which has then been decorated with gold metal hardware.
Silmo d’Or Winners 2024
• Children’s eyewear: Roudoudou by Lafont
• Sports eyewear: Acuity by Out Of
• Vision/Lens: Gen S by Transitions Optical
• Vision/Optical System: VoiSee by Accessolutions
• Material and Equipment: Check Lenscape and Microunit by Eyesoft
• Optical Frame – Brands and Labels: Nina Ricci SNR403 by De Rigo Vision
• Sunglass Frame – Brands and Labels: Zilli ZI65109 by Grosfilley France
• Technical Innovation (Eyewear): OOMade SAV 3D repair unit
• Technical Innovations (Smart Eyewear): Ray-Ban Meta AI by EssilorLuxottica
• Optical Frame – Designer: Lady by Pierre Eyewear
• Sunglass Frame – Designer: Prodesign Censur
• Special Jury Award – Morph Alpha by Parasite Design
• Responsible Company Prize: Skans Eyewear and Vanni
Tree Spectacles
Tree Spectacles continues its rise from niche wooden frame producer to established eyewear brand with the release of the 11-strong
Ethereal collection. ‘With Ethereal, we have created a collection that is a true manifesto of sophisticated simplicity, where every detail and colour contributes to a harmonious and perfectly balanced whole,’ says company co-founder Marco Barp.
Pictured from the new collection is the Venere, a voluminous bi-laminate acetate style where layers have been machined away to reveal flecks of colour contrast and texture. The deep temple design is perfectly on-trend and completes the oversized look.
L.A. eyeworks
Do not adjust your sets – this is a rimless style from l.a.Eyeworks. Not generally known for being demure, the brand has taken the ripple titanium concept from last year’s Bobco, Griddle, Quonset Hut and Lean-To ophthalmic frames and applied it to the rimless form that is Bix.
Inspired by corrugated prefabricated Quonset military huts, Bix has the same feel of reassuring heft that rippled titanium offers, but with a sleeker form factor. Rimless frames can take the concept of weight-saving to the extreme, with ultra-light temples and nose bridges that sometimes makes them hard to wear without regular readjustment, but the Bix has no such problems.
Ten colourways are available, including the olive and deep eggplant satin hues, pictured.
