Visiting MIDO, the international trade fair for optics and eyewear is always a treat (except for the boring subway ride over to the NW of the city, the Fiera-Rho stop).
Stuff OC liked at the Mido: the unflappable Oliver Peoples peoples -- who despite having been gobbled up by the Luxottica empire, the Microsoft of eyewear, keep doing their thing with their cool Japanese acetate they way they used to, and they also make the Paul Smith and Stella McCartney eyewear. We also liked the cool Victoria Beckham new collection over at Cutler and Gross (aka Cutlet and Groce), Moscot keeps it cool despite being a bit too much of a statement eyeglass -- "hey look at me I'm a pair of glasses!". John Galliano's new collection (made by Marcolin) is not that Galliano-y: it's cool but sort of normal, for all the hype. LA's own Barton Perreira -- despite the Giovanni Ribisi ad (see below, after the jump) OC is not that crazy about -- rocked some seriously understated, cool eyewear. The Lagerfeld collection, not so much -- and they don't even look like, qualitywise, they're up to Kaiser Karl obsession with details. Mykita showed their usual clean, German, engineer-like lines. Ermenegildo Zegna was quite elegant, as always.
Oh, and the new Catch & Release eyewear line from Link, introduced last night to the public at Sheraton Diana in downtown Milan by Santo Versace, Gianni's brother and president of Operation Smile (the link contains some graphic images) will give part of its earnings to charity, and that's always a very good thing, so bravi to them.
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