NEW YORK—This March, New York City was buzzing with the energy of thousands of members of the optical community. In addition to Vision Expo East, several special eyewear and eyecare related events made New York the place to be this past month. On Thursday, March 16, Thelios and Vogue Business joined forces to host the first in a series of upcoming panel discussions with others planned in Rome in May and Paris in September. This one, focused on the future of luxury eyewear, was moderated by Vogue Business senior innovation editor Maghan McDowell and featured Valerie Leon, president of the Americas for Givenchy, Sara Osculati Thelios’ chief brand and product officer and Lila Allen, senior editor at Architectural Digest Pro.

In discussing the challenges ECPs face in merchandizing luxury eyewear, Osculati said, “I think it is our responsibility to design and define visual merchandising tools that are scalable, that are possible to implement according to the retailer’s space.”

On Friday, March 17, De Rigo Rem and Porsche Design celebrated their collaboration with special guest Patrick Dempsey, who designed a collection with the brand. Dempsey spoke with attendees about his love for racing, eyewear and Porsche, and how all three combined to help him design his collection. Dempsey exclusively told VM, “The cool thing about working with Porsche Design is that it’s really about design. It’s about designing and trying things… it just allows people the creativity, and that was really fun.”

Tarrence Lackran celebrated the launch of his EYECONS Agency with friends, colleagues and guests. His agency will leverage Lackran’s expertise in the eyewear industry to focus on experiences and events, diversity and inclusion and marking and public relations. Lackran told VM, “More than ever, consumers are holding brands accountable to make key marketing and business decisions that showcase different faces and most importantly, different voices. EYECONS will use an equitable eye when working with its clients to translate cultural cues that help them communicate with a diverse group of consumers.”





De Rigo Rem hosted actor Patrick Dempsey, who designed an eyewear collection in collaboration with Porsche Design.

De Rigo’s Alessandro Baronti and Michele Araci celebrate the Patrick Dempsey and Porsche Design collaboration.
Inspired by Dempsey’s love of racing, the collection is luxurious and designed for performance.










(L to R ) Valerie Leon, president of the Americas for Givenchy, Sara Osculati, chief brand and product officer at Thelios, Lila Allen, senior editor at Architectural Digest Pro and Maghan McDowell, senior innovation editor at Vogue Business discussed the future of luxury eyewear and retail.

Thelios’ Enrico Sanavia (l) and Sara Osculati celebrated Thelios’ panel discussion with Vogue Business.

(L to R) Myles Zackheim, OD, Dee Peterson, Zak.'s Sophia Visanji, OD, and J Matsuda's James Kisgen celebrate the launch of EYECONS Agency.









(L to R) Lannard Atkins of Timeless Identity, Pierce Voorthuis of Georgetown Optician, Stephanie Haenes owner of Art of Optiks, Tarrance Lackran founder of EYECONS, Gary Black of Black Optical and Corey Shapiro of Vintage Frames celebrate the launch of EYECONS Agency.

Optical Affairs' Christian Roth (l) and Eric Domege (r) celebrate with Eye Q Barbados' Alicia Hartman and Jennifer Tsai, OD, of Line of Sight at the EYECONS Agency party.

Tarrance Lackran (l) celebrates the launch of his EYECONS Agency with Autianna Wilson, the Optical Goddess.