Silmo a Venue for Canadian Ingenuity

By Paddy Kamen

With October 2008 being such a traumatic month for the world economy, one might think that the Silmo international trade show last November would be disappointing. Au contraire, mes amis!

Silmo 2008, which took place from October 29 – November 1 at the Porte de Versailles in Paris, was a great success. And while some of the press may want to point out a miniscule drop in attendance or the fact that a few of the world’s largest eyewear firms didn’t show, one just has to look at the outpouring of creativity in eyewear design and technical expertise, along with the business results to know for a fact that people at Silmo 2008 were selling, buying and making connections like never before.

There were two outstanding new Canadian companies showing at Silmo for the first time: Swap Eyewear and Interfaces, both hailing from Montreal.

Swap was founded by Louis-Martin Beauséjour and Guy Brousseau in 2007. And while the company is new, these gentlemen were not entirely new to the eyewear scene, having made their first impression as the designers for the Toulch One concept with interchangeable temples, which was acquired by Allison SpA for their Try Change label.

“Our aim with Swap was to solve some design challenges typically associated with interchangeable products. We took any fragility out of the product by making them of 100 per cent Grilamid, well known for its incredible strength,” says Beauséjour. “We also made sure the manipulation of the interchangeable inserts was quick and dead-easy. One of our key goals was to ensure that our product results in a fast and easy sale for eye care professionals.”

The Swap line features six shapes, each available in light crystal, cozy brown or deep black. All frames include a set of seven pairs of easy-to-change, interchangeable colour sliders for the temples.

Interfaces is a new eyewear company created by Montreal optometrists Michael Toulch and Harry Toulch. Their beautiful new patent pending rimless collection, designed by Ramak Radmard, was created to meet several criteria.

"We sought to present eye care professionals with a business solution that allows for a small financial commitment and a quick return on investment," says Radmard. The result is an innovative customizable frame of composite stainless steel and nylon construction with no screws, coil-springs, welds or soldering. A wide selection of lens shapes is available and temple colours are rich, and either vibrant or subdued.

"We previewed the product at Silmo to strong interest, particularly from Europe and the Middle East," notes Radmard. "We're focusing on the European market at first, but are also having conversations with distributors for North America."

At the time of writing, the only place in Canada for consumers to obtain the Interfaces collection is through the Toulch stores in Montreal.

Westgroupe’s brother and sister team, Michael and Beverley Suliteanu, were surprised by Silmo. “We thought attendance might be sparse, given the economic climate but we were very busy,” says Michael. “We found a distributor for Spain and hired a sales coordinator for Asia Pacific and the Middle East, bringing our global distribution up to 33 countries. From my perspective it was wonderful.”

Beverley Suliteanu notes that their Wescan division introduced 20 new models at Silmo: ten for FYSH and ten for KLiiK, which met with great response. “Both are focused on colour, which is the mainstay of the brands. Our customers really appreciate the difference between the lines, with KLiiK concentrating on the smaller eye sizes and FYSH on the larger sizes for the progressive wearer.”

Cendrine Obadia, president of Zig Eyewear, created an elegant and highly visible booth that showed off her Jean Reno and Ziggy collections to best advantage. “Our new 3D frames had their European debut and we had the same huge success with them at Silmo as we did at their Las Vegas launch,” notes Obadia. “I worked very hard on those frames and now I see that all the headaches were worth it. It’s great to have something so different and yet easy to sell. That is my trade mark.”

New designs by Spectacle Eyeworks were also presented at Silmo. Mehran Baghaie was inspired by an ancient form of jewelry – cloisonné – originating in Ming’s dynasty China, to create frames with cloisonné ornamentation on the temples. There are six very feminine cloisonné models (three metal and three plastics) within the Pussy Galore collection.

“Designing jewelry is not my thing, so I had a tough time getting it just right. My aim was to incorporate this beautiful ornamentation without it being too intrusive within the context of the frame. It was very well received, which makes me happy,” says Baghaie, who adds that Silmo is the best show for his small company. “For me it is the best show in the world.”

Baghaie is definitely not alone with that sentiment. The 2009 Silmo will take place from September 17-20. See you there!