Face À Face
Face à Face tends to look at architecture and art for its design inspiration and this season’s collection is no different. With its bright colours, asymmetrical shapes and early ’80s non-conformist attitude, the Memphis Group is this collection’s muse.
Nods to the design and architecture movement include playful, geometric clashes of colour and new bonding and machining techniques that allow the creation of squared-off frame parts.
Women’s style, Moves (pictured, top right), uses colour blocking and offset construction to create a silhouette that sports both panto and hexagonal forms, with extended temple joins that offer a generous fit. Men’s shape Cloud, mixes colour and texture with a thin front layer of acetate that fades away into the main section of the frame, and squared-off edges give the acetate an impression of being made from metal.
Marcolin
Boldness is the key teme across this season’s collections from Swarovski and Guess. The SK5473 (1) style sports exaggerated temple depth, which provides he canvas for Swarovski’s baguette stones. The SK0380 (2) sunglass is equally unapologetic, with a layered cat’s eye shape, pavé crystals and deep temples.
In contrast, the Guess GU7873 sunglass is sleeker in appearance, but loses none of the glamour. The cat’s eye shape features mesh textures on the front silhouette, which is mated to a sleek temple decorated with crystals and Guess branding.
Caroline Abram
Inspired by the work of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, whose contemporary entrance addition to Angers Cathedral in France caused debate about the relationship between modern and historic design, the new Karma collection fuses old and new elements. The eight-strong collection of acetate styles feature intricate stepped milling that reveals more translucence in the colour with each step. Retro round styles like the Karen (1) are bold in size but can be soft in colour, while the Katia (2) style is more modern in appearance, with high mounted temples and an oversize square shape.
Götti
Two new additions in the Dimension collection look to the skies with inspiration taken from aviator and navigator silhouettes. The frames, made entirely in Switzerland from polyamide using 3D printing, feature functional shapes that can work well as sunglass and ophthalmic styles. The flat-browed Gydo style is a modern take on the timeless aviator shape, but still has nods to the past with the open nose bridge. The Guidi style take a more rectangular form, as is the shape of early navigator sunglasses. Each style in available in 15 shades, including four new colours released at Silmo.
Interview: Thomas Burkhardt, president, Marchon
Optician had the opportunity to sit down with new Marchon president, Thomas Burkhardt, at the show to talk about how the company was navigating tricky times in retail and working to a new sustainability agenda.
Although appointed president in August, Burkhardt has been with the company since 2016, joining from the health and beauty sector where he worked with several high-profile brands in licensing. ‘I told myself never to work with licenses again, and then Marchon called and said, “How about 23 licenses?,”’ he jokes.
Optician asks Burkhardt what it was like to move from the beauty sector to eyewear and optics. ‘It’s a fascinating industry. There’s licensing, there’s fashion and there’s having close collaboration with your partners. But then there’s the consumer and a whole medical field of eye doctors and the related B2B component. It’s a very diverse mix of channels that goes all the way from high end department stores to those old doctor’s offices in Indiana.’
During the time Burkhardt has been with Marchon, the optical retail landscape has changed significantly and many practice suppliers are going straight to the consumer via their own brands or supplying online retail. Optician asks how Marchon deals with supplying different channels and maintaining relationships. ‘We can only grow our business if you’re growing your business,’ he says. ‘Us just being here to take market share away from somebody else is not helping you, so let’s figure out how we can grow your business with the most effective partnership possible.
‘At the core of this is a service mentality towards the customer. Obviously, that works differently when targeting the large goods retailers and an independent optician, but the values are the same.’
Sustainability has also moved up the agenda in recent years, both for the end consumer and Marchon’s trade customers. The licensing part of the business gave the company something of a head start when it came to sustainability, says Burkhardt. ‘We’re lucky to have a strong group of license partners like Nike, Calvin Klein, Lacoste and Ferragamo, who all started looking at sustainability a number of years ago and engaged in conversations with us so that we are now asking “what does it mean for us? And where can we make things different?”’
Instead of making gradual changes, Marchon took a different approach. ‘We’ve taken a “Let’s do it first before we talk about it” approach, because it’s easy to come up with big statements and have committees, appoint a chief sustainability officer, and make one frame that’s made out of a few plastic bottles. For us, it was how we could systematically change our supply chain so that it becomes something we can implement on a broader scale. The key to this was engaging with our raw material manufacturers and really getting that to a point where we could flip entire product groups.’
Rolf: Feel and function
Rolf’s stand was a hive of activity as its debuted a rebranded logo that had a familiar, yet new, feel with a lowercase typeface, as well as new frames dedicated to mother nature. Sustainability has always been a focus for the Austrian brand but is now placed front and centre in the materials used and design of new launches. The brand chose a textured honeycomb surface in tribute to one of nature’s biggest pollinators – bees.
The textured effect is used all over the new Honey frame, which is 3D-printed from a mixture of water and castor beans. A rubber ring has been used to connect a new hinge design that requires no additional construction or screws to create a flexible and durable side.
Ferilli: Plant fibre
Ferilli eyewear was founded in 2018 by orthoptist Cristiano Ferilli and focuses on using sustainable materials. Frames are made from Sikalindi fibre, which is sourced from the prickly pear cactus plant grown in Apulia, Italy. The plant is dehydrated then applied on birch wood layers and covered with resin to create a one-of-a-kind pattern. The infesting plant is routinely pruned to limit growth with wood sourced from reforestation areas, ensuring a completely sustainable product.
Fleye Copenhagen: Slice of lagkage
Fleye Copenhagen celebrated 20 years with a new collection called Decades of Design and a gift for 750 optical practices that have loyally stocked the brand. Jesper Mathiesen, CEO of the Danish eyewear brand, showed Optician two limited edition frames presented in a box for practices to use for marketing or to sell as a collector’s item. The beta-titanium models were named after best-selling frames from Fleye’s earliest collections. There are 16 new styles in the Decades of Design range, which celebrates the brand’s anniversary with a slice of lagkage that is showcased by a layered acetate design.
Marcel Grimaldi: European inspiration
Marcel Grimaldi exhibited at Silmo for the first time after launching only three weeks before the event. Named after the designer’s grandfather, the frames are handmade in Oyonnax, France, using Italian eco-acetate. Rectangular and round styles are inspired by European travels with models named after cities, such as Budapest, Lisbon and Liverpool.Vivid, semi-transparent colours are available across 10 styles in the collection with options reflecting the city, such as tortoiseshell for Liverpool. Each frame is finished with a pointed tip as a design signature of the brand.
Cutler & Gross: Cultural Cutler
Graham Cutler’s personal archive of Americana films, books and eyewear from the 1950s and 1960s has inspired the Autumn/Winter 2022 Cutler and Gross collection. Cultural icons from Hollywood’s Golden Era, such as Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor, influenced 9288 model the Protagonist.
The sculpted cat’s eye frame is available in primary colours, such as lipstick red, cobalt blue and Kelly green. Musicians, such as Sammy Davis Jr and Roy Orbison, inspire the 9926 Headliner frame, which echoes detailing from Fender guitar fret boards in the temple core.
JF Rey: Future feel
JF Rey focused on minimalistic design and high-tech influences for its Silmo launch of a range of men’s stainless steel frames. A screwless flex hinge has been specifically designed for these models to give the sides a futuristic look. The eyewear company said the hinge was inspired by robotics engineering and would allow optical professionals to easily replace the temples.
Modo: Statement colours
Modo added seven new autumn/winter styles to its Air collection that were designed with clean lines, a screwless hinge and memory plastic front with a covered bridge. The 4526 model for women is made from titanium and has contrasting colours on the outside and inside of the temple. By contrast, its Bold range included the new unisex 4509C model, pictured above, that combines titanium and acetate in four standout colour options, such as pink and green.
Eyespace: Design DNA
British company Eyespace exhibited at Silmo for the first time and showcased licensed brands, such as Range Rover, Land Rover and Aspinal of London, as well as eco-friendly eyewear across its house brands. The Cocoa Mint CM9136 model offers relaxed glamour with a subtle ombre colouring from lilac to pink on the acetate front that is paired with rose gold stainless steel temples. Range Rover’s design DNA has been carried into the rimless RR3014R frame that pairs Japanese titanium and M49 Mazzucchelli acetate on the temples.