Has it happened to you? You go visit your local optical shop and can’t really find anything you like. You have a vague idea what you are looking for, but most of the frames you see seem to have been there already last time you had your eyes examined – and that was 2 years ago! We are aware of this and have made sure this will not happen in our practice. We learned early on that one can only be passionate in something one does, when you believe it it. That is why we “hand pick” every single frame ourselves.

If we can’t find what we are looking for on the local market, we go overseas. That is just so important! It allows us to stay in touch with global trends and developments and to bring the experiences home. Usually we visit optical fairs at least once a year. Last months for example I went to Sydney to visit the largest optical tradeshow in this part of the world,
ODMA Fair.

The fair, held at the Darling Harbour Exhibition Center, is the place where New Zealand and Australian manufacturers and importers meet to show off their latest products. Some of the smaller design companies from Europe also like to come to Sydney during the time of ODMA Fair.

For us, they are of particular interest, because they usually bring their latest developments, the ones that have just been introduced in Europe a couple of months before. It represents a good opportunity to view trends that are happening around the world and to buy frames that we normally wouldn’t see at all in this country.

On one of the days I met up with the guys from ic!Berlin, a small company from, you guessed it, Berlin. They design and manufactures innovative specatcle frames and sunglasses for more than 15 years. Since then, ic!Berlin frames and sunglasses have developed into something like a cult objects in many areas of the world. You can always identify an ic!Berlin frame by the unique screwless hinge which is the most characteristic part. We already have a great selection of ic!Berlin frames in the shop, but of course I could not resist to order a few of the very latest shapes and colours to complement our current collection.
Have a look at the ic!Berlin hinge: