Norville roadshow hits the Capital

The brands on display, Animal, Bebe, Kenneth Cole, Faberge and Vera Wang covered pretty much the whole patient spectrum and included some interesting, fresh and appealing designs.
Animal is an action sport lifestyle brand with a cult following from teens to older active adults and Norville has taken on frames in the sunwear and ophthalmic range.
Jamie Denholm of Fabris Lane, the licensee for Animal, said he hoped to take the brand into territory opened up by the likes of Oakley.
Fabris Lane distributes Animal sunwear into department and tax free shops but it also handles the ophthalmic range as a specialist market for Animal branded product.
Animal expects to spend £1m this year promoting the brand within its core extreme sports market, the fashion arena and the children's sector. 'The brand speaks to all those groups of people,' says Denholm. 'People work hard and they play hard,' he says.
The styles are very wearable and with the retail entry point around £30 very saleable. For the street wearer there are plastic wraparounds, aviators and cylindrical designs and three pieces in a range of tints, graduated tints and mirror coatings. There are metal and plastic designs in a wide range of shapes. The range of colours includes ultra-modern translucents through to more traditional tortoiseshell and bone-effect patterns mixed with modern shapes.
For the more fashion conscious there are shields, three-piece cylindrical shapes and female-friendly oyster lens coatings.
For the growing youth sector Animal has provided complementary designs for kids looking to emulate their parent's eyewear. Designs such as Shorty, Dash, Limit and Fire provide the mini-me opportunity for kids.
Another brand Norville is getting excited about is Vera Wang. In the US she is an established designer of sunwear and even has home-wear on her list of branded products.
Wang frames come in a huge range of shapes and colours, the overriding themes are of 1950s styling with a modern edge. The eyesizes aren't too big either providing a wearable look. But brand-enhancing pieces such as the white ovals of Omega show that Vera Wang is capable of making a real statement. Elsewhere in the range are stones, butterfly shapes and an unusual frame closure screw arrangement that provides a cleaner line to the hinge area.
Karen Jane Polley, field sales manager at Norville's frame division, said this wide range had been welcomed by practices. Some of the more adventurous styles had gone down particularly well in trendy areas of London, Manchester and Leeds.
Other interesting ideas included the Flatscreen designs that use a flat, reflective lens to provide a distinctive look to the spectacle. Shiny plastics and the overhanging lip on many designs bring back that 50s design cue which culminates in a Jackie O classic.
Faberge is commanding a high profile at the moment and eyewear under this banner makes for a hefty package of colour, metal and stone.
There are big eye sizes, crystals aplenty and shields, the core of the appeal is probably in the affluent 30-plus female market.
Faberge offers a wide variation in the level of stone settings to suit different tastes and some frames sport metal worked decals to chance the pace.
Overall Faberge is a very feminine, opulent range that brings crystals together with other gems, gold and pinks and powder blue in a look that is timeless.
Also at the event was the Bebe range which is pitched at younger female buyers. This a vibrant, fresh range which boasts bright colours and small eye shapes. Its feel is very much young Vera Wang and ranges from the preppy to the chic.
While some of the younger frames have bright laminates and heart-shaped details, other frames have a more sophisticated feel with metal and plastic mixtures such as Temptress.
A more stylish look is available in Gypsy with its upswept look or the flat-fronted Natasha model.
Also on show during the day was Norville's latest offerings from the Seiko lens range plus the new in-practice promotional materials. Norville also took the opportunity to show off its highly popular Kenneth Cole range which now includes some sunwear from the Kenneth Cole Signature line.
For more information contact Norville Eyewear on 01452 318130.