Anything else which inspired us? Sure! Many national and international celebrities contributed to the popularity of (sun)glasses by wearing them all the time. From Lady Gaga to Usher and the Black Eyed Peas who reached hundreds of millions of people when performing at the Super Bowl stage. Or our own Dutch Lara Stone who shined bright in a commercial for Calvin Klein. More brands as ever used bus shelters to promote their collections in the Netherlands. We saw Vogue, Ray-Ban, Esprit, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi and Calvin Klein. But the most publicity once again came from the large fashion shows and events as well as from participations in television shows. Club BRILLANT showed in February during Amsterdam Fashion Week with the American label L’Agence which used the opportunity to launch its first sunglasses collection L’Agence by Sama. A next show followed in July at the Summer edition of the Amsterdam Fashion Week. Club BRILLANT presented young Dutch designer Dennis Diem and combined his work with the exciting sunglasses of Italia Independent. Fiat heir and owner of Italia Independent Lapo Elkann himself attended the show just like the famous model coach J. Alexander of America’s Next Top Model. Due to all excitement the show started almost two hours later as planned but blew off the roof and everybody enjoyed both show and afterparties. End of October at the Fete de la Vue with all the major press once again gathered together, a first impression of the new sunglasses for 2012 could be seen at the catwalk in Saint Tropez style. All shows created loads of publicity. Daily talkshow RTL Boulevard paid attention to the trends, to the 3D technology and developments, to designer Margaret Maldonado of L’Agence and her collection and to Lapo Elkann and the velvet sunglasses by Italia Independent. Transitions was responsible for a news item at Shownieuws, Royalty show Blauw Bloed (Blue Blood) investigated the eyewear of the European royals and eyewear was one of the main topics in the new series of Holland’s Next Top Model. Shoots in the show and promotion video’s at the website as well as attention on Facebook guaranteed lots of rumour around our products. Finally one of the finalists, Michelle, could be seen on posters at all independent opticians wearing a retro-inspired Yves Saint Laurent style. The “Rekenkamer” show tried to prove that margins in optics are far too high but failed completely. And only recently Dutch celebrities Maik de Boer and Albert Verlinden talked about eyewear in the daily Koffietijd show. It may be clear: eyewear is still hot! (to be continued)
