Our second day at SILMO was actually the show’s last day, so the pressure was on for our team to catch all the brand’s we wanted to visit!
We started our morning with Randolph, who is located in Randolph, Massachusetts. The brand is also the prime contractor for aviator sunglasses for the United States military so they are renowned for their classic aviator sunglasses.
‘Born from the American Dream’, Randolph was founded by two American immigrants, Former Royal Air Force navigator Jan Waszkiewicz and machinist Stanley Zaleski. In 1973, the duo opened the doors to their factory. With a background in engineering and some serious skills, Waszkiewicz and Zaleski set out to build an eyewear company with their bare hands. They built the machines that craft sunglasses, purpose-built, for the world’s toughest critics: the US Department of Defence. Today, you’ll find the same machines, the same families and the same ethics, quietly building the world’s finest eyewear one pair at a time.
However, you may recognise Randolph from one of the many celebrity fans the brand has garnered through the years including Tom Cruise, Zac Efron and John Hamm as Don Draper to name a few…
We’re looking forward to stocking this brand and if there are any models you have your eye on in the meantime, please feel free to reach out to our team on hello@pretavoir.co.uk and we can help source it with Randolph Engineering.
Then we headed to DITA to view their Epiluxury collection.
The word Epiluxury comes from the question: “What is Luxury?” DITA Group CEO Micky Dhillon posed that question in 2015, as DITA celebrated 20 years in a luxury marketplace it had no longer recognized. “It had taken us on a four year vision quest of design, engineering, and development to have a product that answered our own self-imposed challenge,” says Dhillon to Forbes.
Ultimately, the word ‘Epiluxury’ goes beyond to capture the true essence of rare luxury. In the most basic sense, going beyond means going past where you are in the marketplace. DITA has been a brand that always ‘goes beyond’ in order to create some of the most luxurious and sought-after designs within the eyewear industry.
For this new concept, DITA has created a new segment in the luxury market - fully customisable and interchangeable glasses and sunglasses.
The goal is in its name: ‘EPI’ from the Greek, meaning “above” and “luxury”. Loosely translated, EPILUXURY means “above luxury.” In his interview with Forbes, Dustin Edward Arnold, Group Creative Director for DITA says “It’s an audacious idea, but we wanted to set our own standards… In the end, it’s about respect for niche expertise. The aim for EPILUXURY is to partner with some of the best within their chosen field to create radical products and services. It’s about pushing craft forward”.
DITA-EPILUXURY is described as a ‘playground’ for pushing the limits of manufacturing, with a debut collection so complex it took 39 months from conception to completion. This was incredibly impressive to see first hand at SILMO.
Only a highly specialised manufacturer could achieve DITA-EPILUXURY’S interchangeable temple design. The temple, built from 21 pieces (a standard temple only consists of 2-3 pieces) and possesses a functioning spring hinge and is the culmination of a process of design and development pushing engineers, designers, and craftsmen forward.
This new EPILUXURY collection is limited edition with styles ranging from $1,800 to $4,500.
From here we ventured over to Matsuda, where we learned all about the founder Mitsuhiro Matsuda from their General European Manager, Yannis.
Yannis was kind enough to talk us through Mitsuhiro’s story, and the brand’s timeline starting back in Tokyo, where Mitsuhiro Matsuda was born and exposed to design from a young age. He attended the city’s renowned design school, Bunka, before moving to Paris to seek inspiration for his clothing line.
What he learned during his time in Paris was a passion for the art deco period, the industrial metal of the late nineteenth century, and details of gothic cathedrals. All of which can definitely be seen in Matsuda’s eyewear…
Matsuda returned to Tokyo in 1967 and created Nicole Co. and introduced his designs to the market. At the time, they were known for their intricately detailed, yet surprisingly restrained interpretations of classic styles. His clothing became a favourite among celebrities and design aficionados alike throughout the world. He also joined the “Tokyo Design 6,” a group of young, talented designers credited for founding Tokyo Fashion Week.
After leaving the market for a few years, Matsuda eyewear was reintroduced in 2012 by CEO James Kisgen, who was previously the director of sales at Cartier. In his new position, Kisgen planned to bring Matsuda back to what it was in the past.
And we are definitely happy he did! The exquisite metals and unique shapes are an absolute triumph within the eyewear market. It is a joy to be able to view such a special brand and stock it here at PRET A VOIR.
Today, art and craftsmanship continue to be Matsuda’s primary inspiration in creating their distinctive eyewear. The brand strikes the balance well of creating new pieces inspired by Mitsuhiro as well as reissuing some of his original eyewear designs.
The pieces we have available are each handcrafted in the city of Sabae, Japan, where over 250 steps are required to create a single Matsuda frame. Matsuda’s craftsmen have mastered the process through decades of learning, as well as knowledge passed on from generation to generation.
We’re really looking forward to our full restock, as well as some new pieces to hit the site, all selected during this appointment at SILMO.
After this we viewed CAZAL’s latest releases, when passion for a product is reflected in the design, there is no-one like Cari Zalloni, whose eyewear designs became a cult in the 80s. He was a visionary who revolutionised eyewear design and created trends that were way ahead of their time, second to none. He crafted an extraordinary style that polarised opinions and has cast a spell over his fans to this day.
CAZAL Design does not follow the mainstream, instead it always finds new ways. The result: original eyewear models with a high recognition value.
It is always fun to see new CAZAL collections, their designs are often striking and always unusual!
With a mix of Unisex, Mens and Womens: the 2023 CAZAL eyewear collection is stylishly composed with its very own character. Oversized, striking acetate, statement frames and with high-quality lenses really rule the collection.
CZAL sunglasses are designed for people for whom individuality and extravagance are part of their life.
One of our favourite pieces from the new collection is this geometric black and gold sunglass below. This style really establishes CAZAL as style, not just a design.
CAZAL use first-class materials like pure titanium or gold and the lavish processing of them guarantee the highest quality. On top of that there is the precision workmanship and numerous quality checks: in this way each of the up to 50 components of a pair of CAZAL glasses is subject to very close scrutiny. The nearly 70 processes CAZAL Eyewear undergoes are constantly monitored by our experts and we feel this latest design really showcases all that craftmanship.
Then our final booked appointment was with Thierry Lasry.
Thierry Lasry is a French designer born in Paris. He launched his eponymous eyewear brand late 2006. Raised in a highly creative environment by a father who was an Optician and a mother who was a designer, he has elevated the status of sunglasses and managed to redesign them into a fashion accessory that is as essential as a nice clutch or a pair of stilettos.
Thierry Lasry is a product of the 80s culture, who blossomed with the joys of Playmobil, Lego and Japanese cartoons. Astroboy and Cobra were broadcasted religiously during that particular period on French television. This is how Thierry developed a passion for colours and geometric shapes. These influences come together to create his latest collection, and one of our favourite designs is this chunky acetate shield style sunglass. 
The Thierry Lasry collection is entirely hand-made with the best craftsmanship techniques and traditional know-how. His frames only use Mazzucchelli acetate and each piece is inspired and assembled by the lego which you can really see in the frames with flat fronts and retro-inspired geometric shapes.
Other stand out pieces for us were his bold colours and acetate blends which provided a very futuristic twist to the collection. Most of these frames feature a layered extra block of acetate on the back of the fronts using a process similar to sculpture rather than the regular standard cutting techniques used in eyewear design.
Each design features clear lines, geometrical shapes and surprising colours. There are no outside logos, instead the Thierry Lasry brand name is hidden from the eye, discreetly engraved inside the temples.
We will be stocking some Thierry Lasry opticals moving forward which we are very excited about and, we also got talking about some more exciting brands in the market such as Casablanca & Marni, let us know your thoughts?
Dinner was booked with Kering Eyewear, so we headed out to dine & discuss our buying with the brand which was scheduled for the next morning at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild. So, after a quick pit-stop to see the Eiffel Tower twinkling, we headed back to the hotel to get some ZZZ’s.
We’ll share more about what to expect from Spring/Summer 2023’s collection in our next blog post.
Au revoir,
PRET A VOIR
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