Silmo 2014 Attendance Steady, Colorful Trends on Display

PARIS—The 48th edition of the Mondial de L’Optique (Silmo) was held from Sept. 26 to 29, 2014 at the Paris Nord Villepinte exposition center.

Despite a strike by Air France pilots during the week of the show which impacted both French and international visitors, as show organizers acknowledged, they did report that overall show attendance was on a par with the prior year’s, at 33,301 attendees, 44 percent of whom were from France, and 56 percent from abroad.

In addition, the 21st Silmo d’Or awards ceremony was held on Sept. 27 at the Folie Bergere, a Paris cabaret music hall founded in 1869. “Cabaret” was the theme of the evening with a variety of performances including “can can” girls, a light show and a roaming magician.

Created in 1994, The Silmo D’Or prize rewards technological innovation and creativity across segments of the optical industry. The 2014 award grand jury is composed of the jury president, French-Argentinian artist and designer, Pablo Reinoso; eight jury members (experts in every category, big international buyers, as well as journalists) and Silmo president, Philippe Lafont.

The 2014 Silmo d’Or winners were:

• Optical frames – Piero Massaro with style PM415
• Sunglasses – Masunaga X Kenzo Takada with the Campanule K18 style
• Sport – Bollé Sport Protective with Coverage Collection for Kids
• Children – Caroline Abram with the 5+5=10 style from Tête à Lunettes
• Frame Innovation – Morgenrot Eyewear with their Morgenrot SC3 concept
• Vision – BBGR with Sirus Plus
• Low vision – Telorion with Telorion Zoom
• Equipment – Interactif Visuel Système with Deep Lights by Activisu

The 2014 Jury’s Special Award was given to Lucas de Stael for the Stratus Collection.

(Clockwise from top left) The entrance to Silmo 2014 hinted at the trend toward color for the whole show. The Color Trend area showed how that color translated to the frames on display from many of exhibitors; while the signage and décor in areas like The Village and down the pedestrian walkways carried the theme home. The only place devoid of color was the Trend Forum area where all black mannequins were used to offset the most avant-guard of eyewear styles.

(Clockwise from top left)The Folie Bergere venue set the festive cabaret tone of the 2014 Silmo d’Or Awards. Red velvet, ornate gilt decoration was just one of the elements one could expect from such a location, while a large group of excited d’Or recipients celebrated as Silmo president, Phillip Lafont, and Isabel Beuzen, Silmo’s director of communication, presented the awards. And to round out the night, nothing says Paris more than a performance from the famous Can Can dancers.

Half the fun of the European shows are the elaborate booths and Silmo 2014 did not disappoint. Brands went all out to lure attendees in, so favorites included (clockwise from top left) the Mondiran-esque Anne et Valentin booth, German wooden brand Herrlicht’s all wood display, Spanish brand Artlife’s comic inspired booth, Lafont’s ode to film-noir, and French brand Struktur’s drive-up option.

At the end of the day, the point of Silmo is to do some business and over the four days that goal was certainly met. (Clockwise from l to r) Many booths—like J.F. Rey, Kenmark, Marcolin and Spy, to name a few—all saw a number of interested parties, showed a lot of frames and wrote enough orders to bring the 2014 show to a rousing conclusion.

Familiar (and famous!) faces also hit the Silmo floor. (Clockwise from top left) Bollé brought in basketball player, and spokesperson for their Sport Protective line, Tony Parker, to meet fans and sign autographs. Well-known industry folk like Mondottica’s Michael Jardine and Sam Craig, the crew from REM, (l to r) Mike Hundert, Donna Gindy, Nicolas Roseillier and Steve Horowitz, the Ogi team (l to r) Joseph Tallier, Carmela Ariano, Daniel Lieberman, OD and David Spencer, along with l.a. Eyeworks Gai Gherardi saw customers in their respective booths.