2Jour Notes

Eyewear remains one of the few categories that manages to stay afloat in uncertain times. This is primarily due to its accessible price point for a broad audience.

Currently, there are three major players dominating the luxury eyewear market:

1) EssilorLuxottica

The company offers a comprehensive range of products: prescription glasses, sunglasses, contact lenses, and ophthalmic lenses. It represents both proprietary and licensed brands (including Prada, Miu Miu, Brunello Cucinelli, Chanel, Moncler, Ralph Lauren.

2) Kering Eyewear

Kering Eyewear, founded in 2014, was one of only two segments to show positive growth within the troubled Kering Group in 2024, recording +8% comparable change YoY (the other one is Bottega Veneta with +6%).

Psychologically, when a person tries to take up more space, it’s often an attempt to assume a position of power and assert dominance. There’s even a term for it — manspreading: when a man (as it’s usually a man) sits with legs wide apart and takes up too much space on public transport.

The current Saint Laurent collection, according to SL creative director Anthony Vaccarello in Vogue Runway, “is about control, and power, in a way.” He deliberately stepped away from the overused “a tuxedo for a woman which was worn naked underneath” (overused, but still no-lose combination I must say). Instead, he offered his vision of something “more strict” — oversized tailoring styles with shirts and ties, very reminiscent of 1980s men’s fashion.

I often browse the brand’s official website — Saint Laurent remains one of my personal favorites in RTW. In the lookbook available there, the backstage photos…

Yesterday, I was passing by Gucci. I saw how fast the burgundy set sold out in the EIP preview at Net-a-Porter, and when I touched it on the mannequin, I felt a proper cotton top and great woolen pants (this set seems to be proclaimed as a collection star, so mannequins at Gucci locations all around London are dressed in the very same shirt and trousers). I then stopped near another window with a grass-green set. It looked good. I was skeptical about the collection, but after it started appearing online and I had a second glimpse after the runway presentation, it felt good.

I was skeptical about Sabato De Sarno as well. Mostly because of the positioning—it felt wrong when he had a long vanity fair walk after the shows, it felt wrong to see dedicated films about him. It felt wrong because there was no tangible result of…