Visual health: a key tool for a better life

Murano glass for Rye&LyeGlasses are increasingly becoming artistic objects.

Architects at the service of fashion

The new president of Eurom, Bernhard Nuesser, revealed the European association’s present and future plans exclusively to WMIDO.

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Issue # 3February 25th 2015

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Eurom was set up in Brussels in 1958, shortly after the establishment of the European Community. The association represents the interests of manufacturers in the precision mechanical and optical industries in relationships with the European Community and other national and international institutions. Bernhard Nuesser is its recently-elected president whom we interviewed to learn about the guidelines for his mandate.

Which are the hot topics for the European Eyewear manufacturers?

Eurom represents 700 companies ie more than 80% of total European Eyewear industry. The mission is to be the voice of the industry in Brussels and with the media. Hot topics that Eurom is working on are regulatory environment and medical devices directives, standards customs and duties, visual health access.Which actions you are planning to improve the competitiveness of European industry?

One big issue is that the impacts of a good and impaired vision in consumer life are not known by the public bodies. It is critical to promote visual health as a key tool for better life and economic growth. On top of that, European manufacturers have a strong position in exporting their products and this should be encouraged by pushing innovation, manufacturing quality and design meeting consumer needs.What about the maintaining of fair conditions of competition both among the European Member States and the third countries?

Eurom mission is not in a defensive way, building barriers and regulations. We much prefer to facilitate exchanges and trade since the existing regulations are implemented and respected by all the players worldwide. However we are working to establish clear technical and data regulations to promote the European industry.Which are the latest actions to promote sales?

There are actually a wide variety of activities which have proven to be successful in Europe as the trade

shows for the eye care professionals as well as the training to latest technological innovations. As the consumers are increasingly looking for information, especially on internet, public media campaigns answer to the question about the category and create desire for the latest products. Which are your future plans?

Thanks to a new organization, Eurom will benefit from different and enlarged competencies. Our members are committed to continue to work on regulatory and technical issues, to improve our market and data intelligence, our communications and to promote solutions for a better access to perfect vision.

Visual health: a key tool for a better life

Safilo launches Fossil eyewear in IndiaWithin Safilo Group, India will be the first market to

launch the Fossil eyewear collection in Asia in Spring 2015. Fossil’s identity is anchored in traditional genuine style mixed with a creative spirit. The eyewear collection merges modern details with an authentic vintage aesthetic, featuring unique and timeless design. The collection includes classic and fashion-forward sunglasses and optical frames with high-quality standards and a close attention to detail, featuring the brand’s iconic hardware elements.

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Mido LabAcademy: 3 questions to... Blake KuwaharaWhere does the inspiration for your brand come from?

I wanted this collection to reflect my own aesthetic sensibility - streamlined and modern, but soulful with an artisanal hand. Blake Kuwahara Eyewear takes familiar and classic silhouettes and encapsulates them in a nontraditional surrounding shape. Using proprietary techniques, two separate frames are seamlessly fused together to create a ‘frame within a frame’. The juxtaposition of different shapes, colors, and textures creates a design tension that is completely fresh and unexpected.

What’s the target of your collection?The Blake Kuwahara Eyewear collection is designed

for the individual that has a creative mindset and an appreciation for the artistry and craftsmanship, but at the same time wants a more understated look. As one of our clients so aptly put it, “Blake Kuwahara Eyewear is the

perfect collection for someone who doesn’t want to look like they own an art gallery, but rather

looks like they visit one”.What do you expect from

your participation at Mido’s LabAcademy?

Buyers come to trade shows like Mido to find new collections and new points of view. Mido’s LabAcademy makes that journey and search easier by putting together a collection of eyewear designers that are new to the market.

Mondottica enters the contact lens business with Anna Sui

Many stages of the frame manufacturing process have now been standardized, but Swiss brand Götti still hand polishes nose pieces, hinges and nose pads. A team of polishers is personally responsible for each frame: the talent and expertise of Waltraud, Barbara, Ludmilla and Renate give Götti acetate eyewear shine and unmistakable shading. As testimony to their skill and talent, upcoming collections

of frames by the Swiss brand will have the wording “hand-polished by...” and the name of the polisher on the temples. Yet another seal of quality that attests to the uniqueness of the Götti manufacturing process.

Mondottica has announced the launch of Mondottica Vision platform for its Designer Contact Lens business. The initial programme features the designer brand Anna Sui whose colour contact lens collections are available in a range of vibrant colours and unique motifs including the Anna Sui Rose, Lace and natural textures; in plano and a full range of prescription powers. Agreements have been signed or pending for six Asian markets in Korea, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. The products will reach

stores in April and will be sold only through eyecare professionals. Additional brands and markets will be developed once the initial Asian launch is complete and can be evaluated.

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Götti craftsmanship

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Allison launches Polygon collection at Mido

Essilor: 30 million euros for Vision For Life

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After 3 years of research, Allison’s staff has developed Polygon, the new brand of the Italian company that will debut at Mido with a 6 sunglasses collection, all made with polarized lenses with a very high protective power, produced by the Pentapolar technology. The new lenses have 5 layers: anti-glare coating, HIR triacetate

treatment (High Impact Resistant), latest generation of Polycarbonate Lens Optical Class 1b, PVA Polar Filter whose inside network of molecular chains allows

the total cancellation of the reflected rays and glare, treatment of mirroring graduated only on the top and bottom of the lens, leaving the central portion

free to ensure a greater contrast. Polygon frames are very light and resistant, they’re made in Polygore, a high-performance tecno-polymer that allows high

heat resistance, resistance to deformation and excellent electrical insulating properties. The adjustable nose pads on two worn also ensure a perfect fit to the

shape of the face.

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Michael Ködel Creative Director Billionaire Italian CoutureNigel Oddy Ceo House of FraserMarc Schneider Ceo Kenneth Cole ProductionsCharles Shaefer Ceo & Creative Director Chervò Usa

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Glasses are increasingly becoming artistic objects. The exclusive capsule collection Rye&Lye is presenting at Mido 2015 is an example: three models that feature an exquisite Murano glass insert on the temples. Murano’s master glass makers have elevated the inimitable characteristics of glass to the very highest levels, using their skill to showcase its quality, dazzling colors, purity and transparency. Today these characteristics have been combined with the design of the new Rye&Lye collection.

Vision For Life is an Essilor pioneering initiative to which the Group has allocated 30 million euros. This makes it the biggest global strategic program for raising funds aimed at reducing refraction errors or improperly corrected refraction. It is estimated that 2.5 billion people do not have adequate eyesight correction which brings with it social and financial repercussions estimated at a yearly loss of 272 billion dollars in global productivity. Vision For Life will support various public interest eye care projects carried out in collaboration with non-profit organizations (including local Essilor foundations), to create eyesight centers and develop skills in areas where people do not have access to primary care.

Rye&Lye capsule collectionwith Murano glass

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Retail goes interactiveEntering the market is a new multisensory shopping experience by designer

Alessandro Luciani. Inaugurated in Milan, the first digital boutique is a fashion and luxury retail concept equipped with the best technology: recognition and mapping of customers as they enter the store; touchscreens projecting customized contents of different outfits depending on the person’s sex and age; digital catalogues and interactive totems that provide consumers with an in-store e-shop. Bound to revolutionize the market, according to Luciani it is a concept that bestows “emotions on digital technologies that are normally perceived as cold and detached. On the contrary, technologies can be tactile, multisensory and engaging.”

“Archimode”: architects at the service of fashionVilla Noailles at Hyères, the French commune at the western end of the Côte d’Azur,

is celebrating its 30th anniversary with the “Archimode” exhibition from February 22 through March 22. The exhibition explores the similarities between the work of six stylists and that of six important architecture firms in which the human body is the common denominator. The six projects on show are Mobile Art (Chanel commission for Zaha Hadid Architects), Prada Transformer (by OMA, Rem Koolhaas), the LVMH Tower (designed by Christian de Portzamparc), the Isabel Marant boutique (by Ciguë), the Kris Van Ass store (also by Ciguë) and the Damir Doma boutique (designed by Diplomates). From a building in New York City to a portable and transformable monolith, from a traditional Japanese store to boutique décor to the staging of a wardrobe: the architecture firms represented the spirit of the fashion houses and showed important synergies between their worlds.

Nostalgic parkaFashion doesn’t abandon its heritage

in terms of style, on the contrary, it revisits it in a contemporary key and makes it its own. The latest men’s fashion shows for fall/winter 2015/16 once again captured this intangible need and translated it into a Fifties and Sixties revival. Confirmation comes from the return of the parka, the iconic mods jacket and symbol of a youth subculture that began in London between these two decades. A protagonist in different materials and colours, it has been interpreted in a variety of ways: from the maxi version with fur inserts by Belstaff and Dsquared2, to the waterproof nylon parka by Kenzo, to the shimmering version by Issey Miyake. Among the retro reminiscences, eyewear has a road ahead of it: seizing the past.

Three-dimensional effects

They whispered their way into eyewear a few years ago thanks to special inserts in the acetate, but fabrics and all their flexibility now appear to be in the limelight. Some examples? Diesel, whose favourite is denim, Italia Independent, Hapter, Ray-Ban and many more. IMM Cologne, the textile reference fair held last month, confirmed a new trend in the world of fabrics: the 3D effect. Testifying to this innovation is textile editeur Nya Nordiska, which received the Interior Innovation Award – Best of the Best for its new decorative bicolour fabric Maki. In a sophisticated combination of materials, Maki celebrates the 3 D and plasticity thanks to a soft polyester background alternated with stiff viscose raffia to create interesting angular distortions.

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Design, fashion & lifestyle | Issue #3 | February 25th 2015

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