Creative spirits

In an exclusive interview and an all time first on Eyestylist, Linda Farrow’s son, Simon talks about the UK brand and its heritage as well as announcing a very special guest appearance for the MIDO event 2025: his mother will be at the show to meet visitors as the brand launches the Iconic collection, a stunning design collection with a campaign featuring Linda Farrow as the model.

LINDA FARROW has an incredible history dating back to 1970, when your mother first created the brand. How have you built upon that extraordinary legacy since you reintroduced the brand in 2003? My mother redefined the eyewear industry elevating sunglasses and optical glasses into a statement accessory. She challenged conventions and pushed creative boundaries with her designs. Upon relaunching the brand in 2003, we were able to revitalise the eyewear market by steering away from the generic designs we saw everywhere else by re-introducing some of her more unique vintage pieces. As the company has grown and we continue to introduce trend lend designs we are very careful to stay true to the brands original DNA – timeless elegance with a modern twist. Today we honour her legacy by combining bold innovation with a commitment to enduring sophistication and high quality. Above: Linda Farrow and Simon Jablon – Linda Farrow stars in the new campaign for the Iconic collection

What do you remember most about your mother’s passion for eyewear design when you were younger, and – during her career – was she an entrepreneurial creative as well as artist/designer? My mother was a visionary designer who saw eyewear not just as a practical necessity, but as a creative canvas, and pioneered the concept of designer sunglasses long before it became an industry standard. Her passion wasn’t just about creating beautiful frames, but about making them a bold form of personal expression that challenged traditional design conventions. She understood the intersection of fashion, art and functionality long before it became a mainstream concept. Her designs were not just about aesthetic appeal but about creating pieces that told a story, that made the wearer feel inspired and empowered. She was both an artist and a business woman who understood how to turn her creative vision into a ground-breaking brand that stood the test of time.

What was the biggest challenge in re-building the brand in 2003, and how have things over the years from your personal perspective, I’m sure there have been some challenges as well as good times? We had to reposition ourselves in a competitive and overly commercialised market, demonstrating that we were more than just another eyewear label, but a design-driven brand with a rich heritage of innovation. As the brand evolved, we encountered challenges in maintaining our design integrity while adapting to changing consumer preferences. The most critical aspect of our rebuild was preserving my mother’s original vision of innovative, boundary-pushing design while creating a sustainable, modern fashion brand.

Linda Farrow continues to be singled out as an example of a highly successful family-owned independent eyewear label…with a global following. How much do you value “independence” in the current climate and in an optical world which is dominated by massive players and mass production? Our independence allows us complete creative freedom. Our design philosophy is to actively challenge conventional and mass-market eyewear designs through bold experimentation and risk taking. Our commitment to innovation is exemplified by working with unusual material such as buffalo horn, sterling silver or palladium, each carefully selected to push the aesthetic and technical boundaries of luxury eyewear.

With so much focus on craftsmanship and artisan techniques – and particularly Japanese expertise, what for you are the really exciting developments achieved in your collections in the last few years? Mention any particular steps you have taken in terms of adding to the already luxurious quality and innovation-led design work found across the Linda Farrow collections…we know much thought and passion goes into developing product at this high level? Renowned in the industry for their meticulous precision and exceptional technical expertise, we can guarantee unparalleled luxury and craftsmanship in all our Japanese hand-crafted frames. As we ensure to prioritise quality, all LINDA FARROW’s frames are precisely cut, finely polished and assembled, hence why our lead time is longer.

Collaborations have been a fascinating part of the LINDA FARROW story, and you have worked with some spectacular fashion designers. What have been highlights for you in your wonderful collaborative design collections and do you enjoy working with brands and exploring new synergies? Our collaborations have been instrumental in expanding our creative horizons. We focused on strategic collaborations with design powerhouses such as Dries Van Noten, Magda Butrym or The Attico, which helped us reconnect with fashion-forward consumers and introducing LINDA FARROW to new global audiences, while maintaining our distinctive identity. Our recent license deal with Jacquemus represents a particularly exciting milestone. Seeing our sunglasses featured prominently in their fashion shows and adorned by celebrities has been a remarkable validation of our collaboration approach.

What will you launch at MIDO this week and what do you look forward to most about this international show? We look forward to showcasing our new Surrealist AW25 collection as the reaction so far from the previews has been fantastic. The main thing is that Linda Farrow herself will be joining us at the show, her first time returning after many years. This event represents a unique opportunity for some of our favourite clients to meet and greet my mother directly, the pioneering visionary behind the brand. This will coincide with the launch of the Iconic collection for which she is featured as the model. For more information visit www.lindafarrow.com – an exclusive interview by Clodagh Norton for www.eyestylist.com. All images were kindly provided by LINDA FARROW.

Vidal Erkohen is the founder of RVS Eyewear, as well as working as an eyewear designer behind multiple independent brands. His most recently launched collection is a sports eyewear line for Perfect Game, the world’s largest baseball scouting organization. In 2025, Erkohen plans to bring RVS back into the eyewear spotlight with a brand new collection….

Although I have been very busy with designing, manufacturing and providing creative direction for multiple brands through out the years RVS has always been at the core of everything I do. Since 2020, I decided to pause on new designs and have only been supplying a handful of our classics directly to our loyal consumers worldwide.

That being said, I’m happy to finally break the silence and inform you that RVS by V will be back in full swing starting in 2025 with a fresh new vibrant collection and will also be available for wholesale purchase worldwide via a select few of our most loyal partners through out the years. If you followed us before I’m sure you know that whatever is coming, it definitely will not be boring! 😎  Above: Vidal Erkohen – pictured wearing “See a clean future” Water sunglasses in collaboration with Mission Blue (Sylvia Earle)

I think this is just the beginning and we will continue to see very clever solutions that minimize our carbon foot print in everything we create. As RVS, we learned a lot through our “See a clean future” project and aim to incorporate this in all of our future projects as well.

See A Clean Future incorporates four different lens options which correspond to the elements that make up our world: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. They tell a story of ECO-HOPE by linking each concept with a hero from our time: Sylvia Earle (Water), Jane Goodall (Earth), Wangari Maathai (Air), and E. O. Wilson (Fire). Each of the aforementioned have provided inspirational words that correspond to the assigned element, which are inscribed on both the inside of the sunglass frames and the lens cloths. Using natural materials.

The frames are produced in innovative materials from the renowned Italian Mazzucchelli company using their M49 bio-plastic, which is eco-friendly, recyclable, and biodegradable. The bioplastic is produced from cotton linters and wood fibers, which are purified into a pulp and then transformed into a resin known as M49.

All the metal inlays as well as temple hinges are made of stainless steel—a recyclable product. The steel is coated with ion plating, which protects the surface and allows the engraving of the frames. Ion plating is a physical vapor deposition process that uses concurrent or periodic bombardment of the substrate with aluminum, which is recyclable and non-toxic to the environment.

The sunglass lenses revert to the traditional use of glass. Typically, lenses are made from polycarbonate plastic but See A Clean Future lenses are made from natural mineral glass produced in Japan. Glass lenses are not only more environmentally sustainable, but also ensure precision clarity and a more refined aesthetic, which is harder to achieve with traditional plastic lenses.

Using natural materials, Rondinone designed the packaging, the ether, or fifth element that contains all others (air, water, earth & fire).

When we launched the project at Art Basel Switzerland as well as later in Miami, our booth was made of 15 feet tall walls covered in real soil taken from his native town in Switzerland.

These walls were later cut in to 10 x 10 individual pieces and sold as limited edition artworks along with all 4 sunglasses all signed by Ugo with a portion of the proceeds given to each respective environmentalist organization.

It was a real labour of love and an unforgettable experience working with such tremendous minds.

5. What are you working on for 2025?  Along with the relaunch of RVS which I am most excited for, I am currently also working on a new brand (also my own) which although I can not give to much information about will bring a fresh new concept to the industry. I always like to go the exact opposite direction of where everyone else is going. This will be no different.