READY TO FACE 2024?

2024 will be a leap year, as 2020 was, and it certainly didn’t leave us with a good memory. While I am by no means superstitious, I am crossing my fingers anyway.

I won’t summarise the problems, wars and recessions that the world is facing, we are all familiar with them and to varying degrees they are also reflected in our professional activities. In view of the New Year, let us look together at the positive aspects that can await us and what we can do.

Allow me a bit of local pride, as an Italian I am proud that, finally, a woman was recently elected to head the Association of Eyewear and Optical Goods Manufacturers, ANFAO. I have known Lorraine Berton for many years and I think she combines the positive characteristics of her ‘homeland’, Cadore, the cradle of Italian eyewear, with a more international outlook given by having lived for a long time on the other side of the world and being bilingual Italian/English. As a woman, she is certainly multitasking (allow me) and will have broad enough shoulders to face what awaits her.

Our industry has changed a lot over the last decades, a few big players manage almost all the fashion brands that have also landed in eyewear and, as licences expire, these same brands pass from one ‘giant’ to another.

And the so-called niche? The design? Creativity? The brands that made history by changing the rules of eyewear 30 years ago have been taken over by bigger companies (including the giants mentioned above), I am thinking of Face à Face, Alain Mikli, Lindberg, Burton Perreira, ic Berlin, etc etc.

Among new designers and their companies, I see so much homologation in chasing the trends of the moment or an exaggerated search for design that then does not lead to sufficient sell-out to make a business survive. There are many good ideas but real research is expensive and the market difficult.

In the meantime, the end of the year is looming and, with it, the urgency imposed by the close dates of our first appointments. Opti in Munich will open 2024 on 12 January and, just over two weeks later, we will move to Milan for Mido. In 2025 it will be even worse because the interval between the two shows will be (literally) a matter of days. Which will lead to almost insurmountable logistical problems for those who want to exhibit at both events.

The world of trade fairs after the pandemic is trying to reinvent itself, Opti has unveiled optiCONNECT, its year-round online version, and Vision Expo East will be in 2024 for the last time in New York before moving after decades in 2025 to Orlando, a venue that is certainly more convenient but, I fear, less prestigious.

Happy 2024 to all and see you soon!

Isabella Morpurgo Publisher

VEDERE International isabellamorpurgo@vedere.it