SILMO Paris: Escaping the Grey

At SILMO in Paris, there was innovation everywhere, with more than 950 companies representing 42 countries – 120 companies were exhibiting for the first time or returning after an absence. Overall, 75% were from outside France, ensuring diverse influences and styles.

Each year the organisers of this annual event identify key trends and this year they were Fancy, Charisma, Adrenalin, and Aura.

The Aura trend reflected the 90s, defining “a cultural era that broke away from previous style conventions” where “minimalism, androgyny, and rebellion come together”.

Adrenaline-themed eyewear was all about movement and performance, featuring “playful dynamic lines, sometimes modular and adaptable, drawing inspiration from sport and technology”.

The frames within the Charisma category celebrated “bold, graphic frames with sculptural, architectural volumes that confidently define the face”. The striking characteristics of these frames were “softened by a colour palette inspired by the great Flemish and Italian masters: luminous greens, Titian ochres, and taffeta blues”.

Frames sitting within the Fancy category were described as a way to “escape today’s grey reality… by embracing joyful fantasy”. Feminine frame shapes, floral colours, pearlescent finishes, and delicate decorative charms were features of these frames.

Recognising Individuality

Sitting perfectly within the Charisma trend was Paloceras, the winner of this year’s SILMO d’Or jury’s special prize. This brand, which is just two years old, was described as “completely out of the box” by Rudi Skogman, its chief commercial officer. Paloceras’ heritage has been influenced by several European countries as well as the careers of founders Alexis Perron-Corriveau and Mika Matikainen. Prior to being an eyewear designer, Alexis was a fine woodworker making pieces for museums, while Mika was a prize-winning digital designer. They met at a design school in Switzerland when both were looking to expand on their careers, and established the company in Lisbon, Portugal. When this country proved to be difficult for a startup, they moved to Finland.

“So [the company is] Swiss, it’s Portuguese, sometimes it’s French. If you look at articles about it, sometimes it’s Canadian because Alexis is French Canadian,” Rudi explained.

While Mika is “a maximalist”, Alexis is “a minimalist”. The result is a combination of the two: sculptural pieces evolved from classic shapes that are surprisingly wearable. Paloceras now has 15 frame shapes created using moulds that enable volume and depths of colour to be achieved by sandwiching clear with coloured acetates using heat and pressure. “The manufacturing method that we use is very special. We don’t really know many others that use it,” Rudi said. “It’s a very expensive, slow, and difficult process. It’s a very difficult way to make eyewear, but in our opinion, it’s what gets the best end result.” Paloceras is distributed in Australia by ProOptics.

Ada Tola and Rudi Skogma from Paloceras

Disruptors

Within the Aura trend was Portrait, a 10-year-old Italian brand created by siblings Valentine and Gabriel Hernandez. Portrait is a member of Parasite Club, which describes itself as a “disruptive collective in the eyewear world”.

With an interest in both eyewear and art, Portrait has created eminently saleable collections with frames crafted from acetate alone, and more recently, titanium fronts with acetate temples. Classic shapes are distinguished by sculptural qualities that naturally play with light and texture. “There is a strong inspiration in the new wave movement of the 90s… but also art in general,” explained Valentine. By working with acetates that are “transparent on the front and solid on the back, the moment you cut them, they unbuild themselves in sometimes unpredictable ways”.

Aside from the commercial collections, Portrait has collaborated with Venetian artist Emiliano Donaggio to create a series of eyewear sculptures: frames adorned with copper wire, and acetate hand-painted with acrylics. While most were created to be displayed in shop windows, one pair featuring Murano glass temples was available for sale. And while the frame was relatively heavy to hold, the chunky glass temple ends firmly held the frame in place, making them perfectly comfortable to wear; a testament to Gabriel’s design expertise.

Valentine Hernandez wearing a wearable frame created in collaboration with Emiliano Donaggio.

Colour and Shape

POP kHORN, a SILMO d’Or nominee in the optical frame eyewear designer category, was another brand that fitted perfectly into the Aura category. This is a French brand, created and designed by Benjamin Mézière, who also owns and designs the brand Gaston. POP kHORN has only been around for two years, making the nomination quite a coup. Alpha, the nominated frame, was constructed from acetate with a rippled wire temple made from titanium. Colours were bold with stark contrasts: not a frame for the fainthearted, and Benjamin admitted that it’s not for the more conservative Parisian market either. “They’re not in love with this kind of glasses,” he told me. However, outside the ‘City of Light’, this is a strong seller. Benjamin said SILMO is important to brands like his; around half of his annual sales come from exhibiting at the Paris show and MIDO in Milan, Italy.

POP kHORN’s Benjamin Mézière.

Celebrating Ingenuity

rolf collected its fifth SILMO d’Or award this year, this time acknowledging the incredible craftsmanship of Superbird, a stone frame. This Austrian brand is owned by two brothers, Christian and Bernhard Wolf, and their focus is on creating small numbers of quality handcrafted, sustainable eyewear.

“We get awards all over the world, and the nice thing is that we get them in different fields (for design, sustainability, technology, and material),” Christian explained. “We are producing the frames on demand, there’s no stock, no suppliers… Our goal is not to make a million glasses. For us it’s much more important to keep it under control and make it good quality.”

I was also fortunate to meet with Simon Hildebrand who designs for rolf, and Sebastian Overeem, who works on evolving the technology. They explained the invisible technology that earned rolf this year’s SILMO d’Or.  Aside from the ability to create the frame by bending a thin layer of natural slate and sandwiching it onto wood (a process entirely developed in rolf’s own factory), to preserve the integrity of the frame rolf developed its own glazing system. Lenses are mounted with a fine thread, guided through small bores in the upper rims. The thread almost imperceptibly thickens so that when it is pulled tight the lenses are firmly held in the bezel and the frame maintains its integrity. Additionally, a screwless hardwood hinge with a rubber elastic spring gives the temples multi-axial movement.

Christian Wolf wearing rolf’s SILMO d’or awardwinning model, Superbird.

Returning Anew

It was wonderful to bump into Robert William Morris. Having sold his eponymous brand three years ago with the intention to retire, he realised he wasn’t ready to exit the industry and so has started again. His new collection, Wright & Bailey London, is named after “the oldest men’s tailor in the whole country” and has its flagship store in the original tailor’s shopfront, which dates back to 1604. It’s the perfect parallel to Robert’s own impeccably tailored style.

Robert said having a shopfront that exclusively sells Wright & Bailey London has helped shape the collections.

“I get feedback direct from the customer, not the optician, the actual wearer. So, when we show the new designs or I’m putting the collection together, I can get feedback from them, which is just invaluable,” he told me.

Robert is quickly building up an international customer base; in Australia his range is distributed by Frames Etcetera, also the distributor of SILMO d’or award-winning brand Caroline Abram.

Robert William Morris from Wright & Bailey London.

Another British label was Taylor Morris, owned by Mondottica. I caught up with Madit Muortat from the team. Founded in London by three school friends 13 years ago, Madit told me, “it’s all about classic simple frames that work for everybody and never get old”.

“So we tweak our designs, but we keep them close to what’s worked in the past and close to the classic identities,” he said.

The Taylor Morris flagship store on Golborne Road in London was recently kept open while a movie was being filmed on the street.

“There was a lot of hurrah… the star of the movie was Ben Stiller. So funnily enough, he was outside doing his scenes. I was distracted and someone came up behind me like, ‘Hey, you work here, right?’ I turned around and it was him. And he ended up buying two Draycott frames [a classic aviator style],” Madit recalled.

Mondottica also owns the Australian-founded brand Sunday Somewhere and he was keen to tell me that since the acquisition, it has been reinvigorated and is now doing particularly well in the global market.

“It came into our hands about five years ago. And I feel like we’ve revitalised it,” Madit said. This has been achieved by “looking at the old content, looking at the old frames, going through the archives, getting an idea of what really gave the company the identity that it has… but also, being open to new ideas”.

Off and Racing

Germany’s ic! berlin is also evolving, having been acquired by Marcolin. The brand’s partnership with Formula One racing was a feature of the stand. Leo Kistermann, global brand and distribution director, was keen to point out that the synergies between the two were clear, and the partnership is expected to open ic! berlin to a broader market.

“Formula One has changed a lot over the recent years, and it has become a platform also for very high-end premium luxury brands to increase the brand awareness to, let’s say, other consumer groups,” he said. “And we at ic! berlin identified the partnership with Audi Revolut as a strategic platform to do exactly that; increase our brand awareness throughout new consumer groups. There are many Gen Z viewers now watching Formula One as well. And together with Audi Revolut, we want to really bring ic! berlin to the world.”

New to the collection was Archie, an acetate-metal hybrid. “We have many markets where we receive feedback that the durability, the strength of ic! berlin and the light weight of ic! berlin, in combination with acetate, is something that is really highly demanded,” Leo explained.

The ic! berlin and Audi Formula One display at SILMO Paris.

Stepping Up

It’s always a pleasure to bump into Saskia Stepper from Stepper Eyewear and this year I was able to meet her daughter Alisa as well. Saskia’s father, Hans, now 91, was not at the show, much to his disappointment, Saskia told me. However, she has been at the helm now for many years, and with her daughter learning the ropes, the future is bright. Saskia showed me the latest Spirit collection, which has been developed over 18 months.

“The Spirit was, in the old days, (made) with stainless steel, but now we made the move towards titanium as well… We want to be modern, but not too modern…It’s still the same USP (unique selling proposition). So, it’s lightness, good fit, and everything.”

A plastic or TX5 frame was another new addition to the collection. Manufactured in one piece, the top of the frame face is bold and architectural, complemented by a thinner rim. She said unlike acetate, the plastic frame is created in a way that maintains its shape.

“Our frames are born three-dimensional. They don’t know flat, so they cannot get flat. So, you don’t have to go to the optician all the time to adjust it,” Saskia said.

Sustainability

Sustainability was, of course, a continuing theme at SILMO this year. I dropped in to see the Italian brand VANNI, which was the first Benefit Corporation in the Italian eyewear industry. As VANNI co-founder Alessandra Girardi explained, being a Benefit Corporation means evaluating the impact of every decision made on people, planet, work, and the community.

Design and sustainability go hand in hand, she said. Because milling frames from acetate produces a lot of waste, the company has chosen to design frames that can be made with thinner than standard sheets of acetate. Additionally, it uses small pieces of what would otherwise have been thrown away to create striking details.

“A very good design takes into account the durability of the project and also the sustainability of the use in the materials. [Sustainability] has to be included already in the thought of the frame, and the design and the engineering of the frame. We have many… exclusive acetate blocks that are not used up completely, but we use little parts to compose other frames,” Alessandra said.

The quality of acetates engineered by recycling the scrapings from eyewear production has come a long way. The Italian company Relace works with luxury eyewear manufacturers in Italy and France, including Gucci, to create bespoke acetates without adding solvents, plastics, or colours.

Alessandra Girardi from VANNI.

SILMO d’Or Awards

The best of the best were celebrated at the 33rd SILMO d’Or after party, held at the Pavillon Dauphine function centre, which was built in the early 20th century. French champagne flowed, and after the presentations, a techno-disco had the winners partying into the early hours of the morning.

This year’s awards were presented to:

Children

Karavan Kids: Zigzag; Design Eyewear Group

Sport

Julbo: Panora

Vision

Mega Optic: Evosight VR

Low Vision

Eschenbach Optik: optaro XL

Material / Equipment

Nidek: Phantom

Technological Innovation in Eyewear

Laclarée: Lunettes autofocus Laclarée

Smart Eyewear

Getd & Marienfeld: The Luxury AI glasses

Optical Frame/ Labels

Lancel: Emeline – LA90118 C03; Grosfilley

Sunglasses/Labels

Victoria Beckham: VB 7015/S; Safilo

Sunglasses/Eyewear Designer

Caroline Abram: Sakura

Optical Frame/ Eyewear Designer

Maison Lune: La Galet

Sunglasses /Craftsmanship and Know-How

Brett: Ferdinand Sun C06

Optical Frame /Craftsmanship and Know-How

rolf eyewear: Superbird

The Prix du Jury

Paloceras: Pebble RX

The next Paris tradeshow will take place from 24–27 September 2027 at Paris Nord Villepinte.

The 33rd SILMO d’Or after party.