Autor: Newsroom

What values today guide our path to the future? What are the cultural, economic and social perspectives? To answer these and other topical questions, looking into tomorrow and touching on topics such as training, the society, labor and economy, Marcolin invited three opinion leaders at its Milan showroom on October 19. What for? To have a chat with a small group of journalists, customers and partners. Marcolin Talks thus made its debut wishing to give food – in Italy and abroad – for thought and an opportunity to talk with authoritative speakers about innovation and Made in Italy excellence. This first run is titled Visions.

To guide the first meeting come the “visions” of three big names in the world of business and communication: Stefania Lazzaroni, General Manager of the Altagamma Foundation, which brings together 114 Made in Italy brands; Federico Garcea, CEO & Founder of Treedom, an e-commerce platform founded in 2010 to offset carbon emissions by planting trees all over the world; Francesco Oggiano, a journalist and content writer for the Will Media community. Three illustrious guests who, after introducing themselves, immediately delved into what awaits us. And, more importantly, how to get there.

«In the fashion and luxury industry, the future speaks a language of sustainable innovation, of course. It’s not a slogan but a global challenge, that our country can also combine with beauty. This is possible thanks to its ecosystem comprising small and medium enterprises and an unparalleled craftsmanship that can’t be replicated elsewhere. In the meantime, it is important to invest in youth training and continuing professional development» said Stefania Lazzaroni, also touching on the need to combat counterfeits, which plague the industry.

According to Federico Garcea – who with his startup since 2010 has planted almost 4 million trees in 17 countries across the world (15,000 of which comprise the “Marcolin Forest”, thanks to the collaboration started in 2021 between Treedom and Marcolin) – the future is, of course, green. «Just 1 business out of 10 doesn’t consider sustainability and for this reason it is destined to close. The others are working on reducing and compensating emissions by planting trees. Rather than greenwashing, it’s a commitment for everybody that goes well beyond business: it looks straight into the future».

And in the coming years such commitment will also look to information, of course, which today is facing the challenge of artificial intelligence. «Change started in 2019, then the lockdown and stay-at-home policies did the rest. So the challenge today is to be able to use all the existing tools while maintaining quality and rigor» journalist Francesco Oggiano remarked. «And if it’s true that in a few years’ time we will be reading totally synthetic news and articles, written using artificial intelligence, media professionals will in any case be responsible for providing a starting point and an analysis».

Ideas are always born from a need, and in this case we needed to characterize the eyewear, to make it more recognizable, which is increasingly complicated in today’s crowded market. Max Mara has its own behavioral code, which derives from and conveys elegance, charisma and awareness. So we were inspired by these values, along with the ability to stand out from the crowd but without raising one’s voice; in this case we created a geometric element with well-studied proportions that was the fruit of great experimentation. Maxim goes beyond the idea of a simple decoration, becoming a detail that makes the eyewear recognizable, while at the same time enhancing the eyes of the wearer, without arrogantly imposing itself. It’s the same Effortless and Allure philosophy that clearly characterizes the Max Mara collections.

Metal is a material that instantly brings wealth to mind, and it is also strong, reassuring and endless. It reflects light more than any other material, it makes us sparkle, it dances with light, creating movement and catching the eye.

Jewels recall a combination of at times contrasting sensations. Sometimes they recall vanity, sometimes the emotionality of a certain moment, sometimes they are reassuring. Gold and stones are precious materials because they lie deep inside the womb of the Earth for millions of years, finding them and making them sparkle is risky and complicated. Gold is immutable and untarnished, it doesn’t change over time, nothing affects it, that’s why it’s a symbol of the eternal promise of love. And that’s why it increases in value through the years and the generations: the jewel we wear tells our story, reassuring us that it will tell it forever, keeping our memory alive.

Also this year Marcolin was among the players attending Silmo Paris, the international fair dedicated to optics and eyewear held every year in Paris, in the pavilions of Paris Nord Villepinte, this year in the same days of the Paris Fashion Week. Established in 1967 with 58 exhibitors in a space of 1500 square metres, the International Eyewear, Optics and Optical Equipment Exhibition has grown over the years to occupy 70,000 square meters of space with the stands of 700 exhibitors representing a total of 1500 brands.

An international event which, this year, attracted more than 30,000 visitors, 54% of whom came from abroad, for a total of 130 countries represented, among which Italy, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain, the United States, Switzerland, Tunisia and Morocco. This year edition was dedicated to the «Silmo generation». A way to underline, after 50 years of history, the continuity and passing of the baton from one generation to another, in historic companies as well as in younger and smaller ones.

It is within this context that, through the inevitable yellow catwalk and the scenographic touch of the large, coloured spheres at the entrance, Marcolin’s booth stood out for the elegance of its black&white and the creation of unique corners within it. In which the eyewear, the true protagonist of this great event, are presented broken down into the smallest details and carefully recomposed within paintings displayed inside the booth. And thus tell the visitors the story of great manufacturing capacity of the company based in Longarone.

Among the novelties presented by Marcolin, Tom Ford Eyewear includes a new interpretation of the iconic Whitney frame, one of the cornerstones of the brand. The refined «infinity cross», which creates the butterfly effect on the front, is the stunning magnetic element of a design with great visual impact that has made the Whitney a favorite of several celebrities. The style is presented in four new versions, including a limited edition in ultra-light gold or platinum-plated titanium. Zegna Eyewear comes up with a frame inspired by Oasi Zegna, the headquarter in the Italian Alps that concretizes the brand’s aesthetic and philosophical principles. The frame, featuring the iconic 232 Road Brand Mark, embodies all the values that distinguish the recent re-branding of Zegna. Guess Eyewear presents a new pair of sunglasses made of bio-based material that expresses the brand’s contemporary character through trendy style. Max Mara Eyewear showcases a modern silhouette for acetate sunglasses with bold volumes, designed to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the brand’s iconic Teddy Bear coat. Adidas Sport Eyewear introduces a new full-rim Performance frame born from the fusion of design and technology. WEB Eyewear, Marcolin’s house brand and an official eyewear partner of Alfa Romeo F1® Team, unveils the new aesthetic principles of the brand: transparency and contemporary design.

In 2021 it celebrated 60 years in business. During these 60 years Marcolin, the Italian company from Longarone that designs, manufactures and distributes eyewear worldwide, has gone a very long way. The 15 million pairs of glasses sold on average every year are a testament to this. But so are other figures.

Since 1968, Marcolin started speaking many languages. As an addition to its first 8 distributor network in the United States, another location opened in France in 1976, and the company soon expanded its presence worldwide with 15 branches in the US, Brazil, Asia, Mexico, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

It’s a young company: 69% of its approximately 2000 employees are aged under 50 years, and 57% of them are women. And they are all engaged with vocational education and training: just think that over the past year they had over 5600 hours of training.

Today Marcolin distributes eyewear for more than 20 licensed brands in over 125 countries and has 1 proprietary brand (Web Eyewear).

One of its keys to success is the “time factor”: the creation of every new frame takes 11 months of hard work in Longarone. It’s the time needed to go from an idea to its design to the creation of a prototype –requiring great artisanal skills and precision- up to the selection of materials and colors and then the manufacturing phase.

But eyewear manufacturing also takes time. The time needed to carry out over 60 steps including, just to mention a few, temple and front creation, assembling, tumbling, cutting, and lens insertion. And then refinement, the phase where the frames are personalized, and adjusting, when all the components of a frame are checked.

Choco-camel or “foliage” tones. These are just two of the endless color options (and lens-frame combos) that are available today. But, whatever color is selected, to verify lens compliance with existing regulations and before and after any frame hits the market, a great number of optical and mechanical tests are conducted. Testing is carried out in-house by our Product Quality and Compliance Department and by the Marcolin Certification Lab, as well as by qualified third-party laboratories.