Silmo 2013, one of the worlds most important fairs for eyewear lovers is over for this year leaving us full of inspiration for the coming season. There is a will to bring fashion forwards through form, colour, materials and production techniques.

We Love Glasses spotted a series of trends during the weekend and here are the three main directions.

One of the trends that caught our attention are the 3D printed frames that now have reached the ready to wear market. A few years ago we could only dream about owning a pair of 3D printed frames in our futuristic fantasies, but now the technique has established itself as a realistic production technique.

Hoet for example presented two frames made out of 3D printed titanium that you can order in your exact size and with personal engraving. More importantly the technique has allowed them to come up with an interesting and complex three-dimensional pattern giving an intriguing effect as you look at the frames from different angles. This pattern is very hard, not to say impossible, to achieve with traditional methods.

Danish Monoqool is another example of a brand that presented 3D printed glasses. They are using the technique to create a hinge solution that is impossible to achieve using acetate. For me, more interesting than the hinge solution and the design is the matt surface of the material they use for 3D printing, that combined with metal temples gives Monoqool’s collection an updated twist to a classic frame.

Another main trend are the wooden frames. We have all seen them before, but the trend is hanging in there thanks to new variations in the material composition and refined production methods.

Paris based W/SUN showed us their new wooden based material composed of recycled wood and bio acetate that is part of the collection Bois2. The material comes in different shades of warm brown colours and has a fascinating semi-transparent appearance.

Also VuerichB presented a new collection made out of recycled material. For the Spanish brand recycling is nothing new, as their hallmark is to use old skateboards to create eyewear, but new for this collection is the re-use of the sawdust material produced from their own production. One of the founders, Baptiste Vuerich explained that he has been collecting all the colourful sawdust for a while and has now found a way to use it to create a new material.

Italian FEB 31st presented another take on the development of wooden frames. They have found a way to produce thinner frames with the same strength as before making them less bulky.

Something we found interesting is the combination between modernistic forms and a classic natural material, buffalo horn.
Rigards that launched last year, showed a well put together collection made out of buffalo horn with a fresh design, all crafted by hand. We are looking forward to see their development.

Apart from 3D printing and wood an overall trend that is well established is the colour blocking and the combination of different colours on the outer and inner side of the frames, both in pastels and neon colours. This was spotted on all materials, in all corners of the fair, and we understand why the trend is so strong, colourful frames light up any dull or rainy day!