Eyestylist

An extensive overview of the creative talent in eyewear, LOFT NYC showcased more than 150 brands and creative eyewear designers, who exhibited collections at two locations in Chelsea/Hudson Yards,  NYC – the event took place as part of the newly launched ‘New York Eyewear Design Week’ 

An expanded 25th Anniversary event, which took place at Chelsea Industrial and Chelsea Factory, attracted a significant number of brands and designers – (in total over 150 exhibitors)  and buyers and retailers visiting from across the US. The show provided an exceptional overview of new trends and innovative design by the leading independent brands and niche eyewear labels – spotlighting the extraordinary variety and continued innovation in materials, crafting techniques, and technical developments across the sector.

Following the event, Richard Mewha, Founder, said: ““The past few days have seen the 25th anniversary of Loft NYC succeed in expanding our concept of a non trade show environment allowing a larger mix of highly curated independent designers to present their amazing wares to the best optical retailers in North America. We also successfully built a collaboration through our Eyewear Design Week concept with other showrooms, notably with Thelios and Kering, to offer a wider array of venues and options over the 3-day event.” Above: LAFONT Paris and Andy Wolf showing at LOFT NYC – Chelsea Industrial

This year, the event saw a selection of special product launches and new collection presentations. They included the launch of the FACE A FACE Anniversary project 3.0  and a colour collaboration with the artist, Jessica Poundstone (www.eyestylist.com/2025/03/face-a-face-reveals-anniversary-collaboration-in-new-york/); the new Galaxy collection presentation from Nina Mûr, a delightful concept fusing art and nature using authentic stone; the release of new designs by FFIN Eyewear such as MOD, a special oversized sunglass shape by Anna Lewis; the latest Collection 2 2025 at SALT. Optics who continue to show a beautiful attention to fine details and colour combinations; and a captivating collection of sunglasses and optical frames called The PUNKS Collection from a new favourite luxury label, Press Eyewear.

We observed a rich variety of eyewear trends, directions and multi-layered colour stories and micro colour trends. Independent eyewear brands continue to highlight the craftsmanship, workmanship, and design qualities of their collections, as well as the intricate creative paths and inspiration behind their work and choices in materials, design inspiration and colour palettes. Eyestylist looks forward to sharing more about these developments in eyewear design in the coming weeks and months.

The LOFT Eyewear Shows have been the premier independent luxury eyewear events since 2000 in New York and San Francisco. Next year, the LOFT organisers have confirmed dates for the NYC event from 5th to 7th March 2026. Find out more at www.lofteyewearshow.com

The French eyewear label has launched a new collaboration with the artist/designer Jessica Poundstone – in celebration of the brand’s 30th anniversary

To mark the 30th anniversary of the brand, FACE A FACE has unveiled a new sunglasses style called FACES, informed by the colourful work of Jessica Poundstone, and presented with special edition art works by the artist (in the form of counter cards and posters). Inspired by by colour sensation, minimalism and light and space, Poundstone creates vibrant abstract art works with bold colour combinations and geometric structured forms, a style that is perfectly in harmony with the artistic vision of the designers at FACE A FACE. Above: the new Faces frame fuses the artistic vision of Poundstone and the signature geometric styling of FACE A FACE sunglasses – the special edition frame was shown for the first time at the LOFT Eyewear Show

FACE A FACE have announced this new artistic project – entitled FACE A FACE 3.0 – during a launch party to celebrate the brand’s 30th anniversary, held at the LOFT at Chelsea Industrial, NYC. The intimate event was attended by the FACE A FACE team, the designers Claire Ferreira and Marianne Dezes, US customers and special guest, Jessica Poundstone who spoke about her vibrant colour explorations and invited guests to have ‘a play with colour’ and a relaxing moment of drawing for themselves.

The new frame from FACE A FACE (pictured top) is now available to order and comes in a striking colour combination of translucent shopcking pink and bright blue.

About Jessica Poundstone – Jessica is involved in many creative projects that we recommend to our readers: most recently, she has published a book called “Museum of Dogs, a romp through art history for dog people”…releasing in June in Europe. She is also a selected artist in Louis Vuitton stores around the world. For more information about the Anniversary, visit www.faceaface-paris.com – to find out more about Jessica’s work, visit www.jessicapoundstone.com

Gai Gherardi, co-founder and creative director of l.a.Eyeworks—revolutionizing the eyewear industry and how it’s marketed, forging an influential design vernacular, and championing artists along the way—died Sunday, 16th March 2025, following a brief illness due to cholangiocarcinoma. She was 78.

Gherardi and Barbara McReynolds transformed eyewear when the high school friends-turned-licensed opticians opened an optical boutique on Melrose Avenue in 1979. Within the year, the eyewear fanatics launched a signature frame despite neither being formally trained in design. Brand and store, along with provocative slogans in the windows, soon became the heart of that storied street’s counter-cultural identity (punks, rockabillies, new wavers) thanks to an avid following of creatives and celebrities, and the founders’ deep support of artists.

Their approach to merchandising shifted the way consumers perceived eyewear: as a sculpture to be viewed from all angles within a retail space that evoked a (friendly) art gallery. Among the distinguishing details: rounded temple tips inspired by Gherardi’s affinity for Australian green tree frogs. Eschewing visible logos on their designs, the frog-toe temple tip is an insider signal among architects to troubadours alike.

“A face is like a work of art. It deserves a great frame.” This slogan defines the long-running black-and-white portrait ad campaign with photographer Greg Gorman. Pee-wee Herman (the late Paul Reubens), who trained a few doors away as a Groundling, featured in the first ad in 1982. Since, it’s been a roll call of iconoclasts: Grace Jones, John Waters, George Clinton, David Hockney, Rufus Wainright, Zandra Rhodes, Sir Ian McKellen, Jodie Foster, RuPaul and, most recently, Justin Vivian Bond. Elton John, who would send a tall Louis Vuitton trunk with individual drawers for all the frames he scooped up, also featured in the portrait series, now well past the 200 mark and counting. Grafiche Damiani published 171 of those images in a lavish book in 2011.

Gherardi was born on 8th July, 1946, in Glendale, CA, and raised an hour south in Huntington Beach. In the halls of that surf city’s eponymous high school and already conveying her maverick style in combat boots (to the prom, no less), Gherardi met McReynolds. The pair bonded instantly over folk music and eyewear.

Glasses were an obsession for both. So much so that a teen McReynolds with 20/20 vision faked an eye exam, and, after months of taxing her optometrist to find the perfect frames, scored a job in his office. When the doctor opened a branch near UC Irvine in 1965, McReynolds hooked up Gherardi with employment there.

When the friends opened the Melrose mothership on 9th September, 1979, Gherardi, in an interview, recalled that glasses “were still considered such a prosthesis. There was a lot of inhibition to wear them. But we were fearless about digging around to find great glasses.” Within months of opening, they submitted a sketch to a French eyewear maker: a classic acetate frame that nodded to those worn by lifeguards. They christened the unisex style “The Beat.”

Hundreds of influential original frame designs in expressive colorways have followed, manufactured in Europe and Asia according to the highest standards in the marketplace. In 1984, Eyeworks 3 launched, with partner Margo Willits and an office in France, to distribute the line worldwide.

Their distinct signature frames have been exhibited at the London Design Museum, the London Craft Council, the Los Angeles Craft Museum, the London College of Fashion, and the Chicago Athenaeum, among others. The limited-edition “Face It” collection, l.a.Eyeworks frames custom-embellished by artists, designers, and jewelers, has toured worldwide. Passionate about glasses as objects, Gherardi and McReynolds amassed an extensive collection of vintage fantasy frames, which has also toured museums internationally.

The brand’s credits in Hollywood and music are significant, including cult classics such as “Thelma and Louise” and “The Matrix.” But it’s the shopfront’s representation, albeit apocalyptic, in “Blade Runner” that continues to send fans emailing the company to this day.

Forays into expression and artist collaborations have proven limitless, from programming to architecture to merchandising. In contrast to Gorman’s high-contrast, timeless portraits, l.a.Eyeworks launched the Technicolor “Uncensored Visions” ad campaign in 2019. Shot by LA lensman Josef Jasso, it has featured electroclash star Peaches, drag star Murray Hill, thereminist Armen Ra, and LA punk icon Alice Bag.

The collector series of lens cleaning cloths, rolled out in 2009, taps rising and established artists such as Catherine Opie, Barbara Kruger, Isaac Julien, and, most recently, Gabriela Ruiz. From Day One, the store windows have featured thought-provoking, double-entendre messages and site-specific installations with commissioned artists, characterized by offbeat humor, agitprop, and the celebration of the absurd to comment on culture, gender, and politics. Among the most talked about, and in response to the government’s challenge with talking about condoms during the AIDS crisis, was the late Robert Warner’s assemblage of black frames inside condoms hanging by threads behind the window vinyl “Safe Spex.” More recently, fun puns include “Elect to Think,” the Supreme Court-inspired “Eye Object,” and the Pride-fueled “Wear Them Out.” “The statements we make with our windows have more to do about dialogue with our community,” Gherardi once told the Los Angeles Times. “We use our windows to talk. The essence of this company is doing those things we believe in. How we live our life, how we conduct our business is our activism.”

“The genius of what Gherardi and McReynolds created with l.a.Eyeworks is its infinite flexibility and knack for zeroing in on timeless concepts,” notes Robert Rich, CEO of l.a.Eyeworks. “It’s a legacy we will proudly carry forward into the future.” That future nears as the company readies a new retail flagship in a campus-like setting on Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood. That complex is slated to open later this spring.

Gherardi devoted considerable resources and time to freedom of expression (summed up in the catchphrase “Uncensored Visions”), women’s rights (Planned Parenthood, among them) and AIDS-relief organizations (Project Angel Food). She was serving as board president of Art Matters, the NYC-based nonprofit which has gifted 2,000 grants to artists since 1985, at the time of her death. She also regularly served on national arts and design juries; and lectured internationally on design and brand development.For the first time in its history in 1991, the Stanford Conference on Design acknowledged their optical designs under the industrial design category–an important break for the duo and for the eyewear industry. In 1992, they received the Gold Award for product design from International Design Magazine.

The partners successfully ventured into the dining business in the 1980s with now-famed chefs Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken on the critically acclaimed City Café, City and Border Grill restaurants.

Gherardi was also a fervid protector of the environment, specifically the endangered California Desert Tortoise.

In addition to the l.a.Eyeworks family of two dozen employees worldwide, and a global network of vendors and sales representatives, Gherardi is survived by her life partner of 50 years Rhonda Saboff; sister Heather Gherardi; nephew Jett Schuster, grandnephew Mason Schuster, grandniece Stella Schuster; stepsisters Michelle and Rene Gherardi, and goddaughters Sula Fay and Pazia Luz Bermudez-Silverman.

McReynolds retired from formal duty in 2011, and she has continued to provide her creative two cents in an advisory role during near-daily morning coffees with her high-school friend.

A life celebration for Los Angeles and New York is in the early planning stages. Photography by Sula Bermudez-Silverman / special thanks to Brent Zerger / www.laeyeworks.com