He has claimed practitioners' ideas of what a children's branded frame should look like, and the type of design that will sell, are totally at odds. Brulimar has a large stake in the market with its branding of Barbie and Fisher Price frames for children. At last week's Eyefashion 2000 Brulimar added branded frames and point-of-sale products for Action Man, and Dennis the Menace branded products for kids. Mr Librae said one of the biggest problems he faced in selling branded frames to the youth market was that practitioners often would not stock the products because they did not feel the colours, styles and materials were outlandish enough. 'They expect Barbie to be all pink and glitter but that doesn't sell. Research consistently shows that kids don't buy them,' said Mr Librae. What does sell, says Librae, are frames that look like what their older sister might wear. 'Kids are more sophisticated in their tastes,' he maintained. At Eyefashion 2000 Brulimar launched a range for the female teen to thirties market under the Morgan label, and is currently working on a branded range of frames for the male teen to mid-30s age group.
Practitioners' expectation for the design of children's branded eyewear is often too outlandish and does not reflect the kind of styles that young people want to wear. This is according to Howard Librae, managing director of Brulimar Optical.